UAE Detains Activists

Several political activists in the United Arab Emirates are being detained, after signing a petition for free elections and other changes to the UAE.  The UAE is having national elections on September 24th, and Human Rights Watch and other organizations are asking for the release of the activists before that.

Egyptian Elections: Update II

Well, the runoff elections are over.  And, no surprise, Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party won.  As usual, the elections were plagued with charges of fraud and even voter intimidation.  The Muslim Brothers boycotted the runoffs, which means they were shut out of parliament.  Human rights organizations are calling for the elections to be annulled.  Personally, I doubt that will happen.  Considering all the irregularities in past elections, why would Mubarak care about this one?  Especially since his party has even more control over parliament (an estimated 83% plus help from some independent parties).  Next year is the presidential election.  You'd think the United States would be concerned about democracy in Egypt.

Egyptian Elections: Update I

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd have pulled out of the run-off election in Egypt, in protest of election fraud.  According to the BBC:

Following the first round, Egyptian media carried images and testimonies of mass faked ballots and voters being intimidated at polling stations.

The end result is that most of the seats in parliament will go to the National Democratic Party of Hosni Mubarak.  So much for democracy in Egypt.

Egyptian Elections

Elections were held yesterday in Egypt.  The Muslim Brotherhood and New Wafd appear to be the losers and the Brotherhood is claiming fraud.  Which is pretty standard for elections in Egypt.

Egyptian Elections Upcoming

The Egyptian elections are set to start at the end of the month.  Their electoral commission has until tomorrow to finish vetting all the candidate applications.  There were a lot this year:  5,720.  There were calls for a boycott by Mohamed ElBaradei, but he's mostly been ignored this year.  There have been rumors about Hosni Mubarak's son being his successor, but, at least for the moment, Gamal Mubarak is saying no.  He is part of his father's National Democratic Party, which met a few days ago to discuss the elections.