On the Election in the Papers Today
Mubarak reelected by less than quarter of Egypt voters
Incumbent Hosni Mubarak has swept to victory in Egypt's first contested presidential poll, with almost 90 percent of the vote, but with less than one-quarter of voters turning out and opponents charging the results were rigged. Official results announced by presidential election commission chairman Mamduh Marai gave the 77-year-old leader a whopping 88.5 percent of the vote in Wednesday's election and put the turnout at 23 percent. (AFP)
Ghad party leader Ayman Nur clinched second place with a paltry 7.6 percent in Wednesday's elections but challenged the results, claiming he had secured four times as many votes. He said estimates based on his party representatives' exit polls and assessments by judges manning the polling stations gave him between 30 and 38 percent of the vote.
Egypt's Opposition Sees Democracy Hope
Turnout was miserably low, voting irregularities were prevalent, and the result — President Hosni Mubarak's re-election — was known from the start. Still, some in the opposition said Friday that Egypt's flawed vote created momentum toward greater democracy. (AP)
Mubarak wins Egypt presidential vote on low turnout
President Hosni Mubarak won a fifth six-year term in Egypt's first contested presidential election, as expected, with 88.6 percent of the vote but turnout was very low at 23 percent.The election enlivened political debate and led to scathing public criticism of Mubarak, but many Egyptians said they would not bother voting because the outcome was assured and they feared rigging by the government. (Reuters)
Landslide win for Egyptian leader
BBC Cairo correspondent Heba Saleh says it was always expected that Hosni Mubarak would win this election. The only surprise, she says, seems to be that the government papers are acknowledging the low turnout. (BBC)
Mubarak's Victory Orderly, but Opposition Is Still Angry
The credibility of the outcome was also diminished by the independent commission's refusal to allow any outside monitoring of the count. The commission was set up by constitutional amendment to be above the law; its decisions cannot be appealed. Its members also took the position that they did not have to publicly explain their actions, including a decision to let civic groups monitor polling stations that was made at the last minute, leaving the groups scrambling to set up operations in time. "There is no room for doubt because it is all a matter of compiling and adding, which we do accurately and more than once," the commission spokesman, Osama Attawiya, said in a telephone interview before hanging up. (NYT)
Mubarak Wins Easily, but Vote Fails to Engage Egypt
In the end, Egypt's first multiple-choice presidential vote produced a result that resembled the one-candidate elections of the past. ... Marei, who barred monitors from the polls and insisted the vote count be held behind closed doors, attributed any electoral abuses to "enthusiasm." (WP)
Incumbent Hosni Mubarak has swept to victory in Egypt's first contested presidential poll, with almost 90 percent of the vote, but with less than one-quarter of voters turning out and opponents charging the results were rigged. Official results announced by presidential election commission chairman Mamduh Marai gave the 77-year-old leader a whopping 88.5 percent of the vote in Wednesday's election and put the turnout at 23 percent. (AFP)
Ghad party leader Ayman Nur clinched second place with a paltry 7.6 percent in Wednesday's elections but challenged the results, claiming he had secured four times as many votes. He said estimates based on his party representatives' exit polls and assessments by judges manning the polling stations gave him between 30 and 38 percent of the vote.
"This is a fraud aimed at eliminating the only candidate who will still be alive for the 2011 presidential election," said the 40-year-old lawyer, by far the youngest candidate.
Egypt's Opposition Sees Democracy Hope
Turnout was miserably low, voting irregularities were prevalent, and the result — President Hosni Mubarak's re-election — was known from the start. Still, some in the opposition said Friday that Egypt's flawed vote created momentum toward greater democracy. (AP)
Mubarak wins Egypt presidential vote on low turnout
President Hosni Mubarak won a fifth six-year term in Egypt's first contested presidential election, as expected, with 88.6 percent of the vote but turnout was very low at 23 percent.The election enlivened political debate and led to scathing public criticism of Mubarak, but many Egyptians said they would not bother voting because the outcome was assured and they feared rigging by the government. (Reuters)
Landslide win for Egyptian leader
BBC Cairo correspondent Heba Saleh says it was always expected that Hosni Mubarak would win this election. The only surprise, she says, seems to be that the government papers are acknowledging the low turnout. (BBC)
Mubarak's Victory Orderly, but Opposition Is Still Angry
The credibility of the outcome was also diminished by the independent commission's refusal to allow any outside monitoring of the count. The commission was set up by constitutional amendment to be above the law; its decisions cannot be appealed. Its members also took the position that they did not have to publicly explain their actions, including a decision to let civic groups monitor polling stations that was made at the last minute, leaving the groups scrambling to set up operations in time. "There is no room for doubt because it is all a matter of compiling and adding, which we do accurately and more than once," the commission spokesman, Osama Attawiya, said in a telephone interview before hanging up. (NYT)
Mubarak Wins Easily, but Vote Fails to Engage Egypt
In the end, Egypt's first multiple-choice presidential vote produced a result that resembled the one-candidate elections of the past. ... Marei, who barred monitors from the polls and insisted the vote count be held behind closed doors, attributed any electoral abuses to "enthusiasm." (WP)
posted by ritzy @ 10:55 am
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