Turbulent Egypt
From Jack Shenker's story on yesterday's protests/clashes in Guardian:
In Damietta, a port town where the Nile meets the Mediterranean, the army used force to break up mass protests on Sunday which had brought the city to a standstill for several days. Local news reports indicated that at least two protesters were killed and 11 others injured during the violence. Witnesses told the Guardian that the death toll was considerably higher, but this could not be independently confirmed.
"The situation is very dangerous," said Shaaban ElBadahy, a teacher in Damietta. "Protesters have closed off all the ports and roads in the district and no one can enter or leave the city."
Residents were protesting against newly unveiled plans to expand the production of fertiliser in the area. An existing US-Canadian factory has been blamed for a series of environmental disasters including the depletion of local fish stocks, but its owners insist that they meet all relevant safety standards.
In Aswan, police used teargas against protesters angry over the killing of a local boat captain, who was shot dead by a police officer following an argument last week. Amid claims that protesters might try and shut down the power supply running from the Aswan dam to the rest of the country, the authorities declared a curfew and stepped up the security presence in Egypt's southern-most city.
Add to that various clashes (usually because of family vendettas and fights over land) in Upper Egypt, and this paints the impression of a country where there is little policing and the state's ability to control violence is severely hindered. Some of this violence occurred before, but was repressed by the authorities and often did not make it to the media. And some may be related to heightened tensions during the electoral period. But much if it also has to do with the semi-collapse of the police with few attempts by the transitional government to set things right and begin the process of building a new police force.
I'm struck by how, in conversations with various people from the man on the street to politicians, there remains much doubt about whether the elections should be held in such a potentially explosive climate. The media is of course exaggerating this line — Rose al-Youssef, a major weekly magazine, has on its cover the headline "the parliament of blood" with a picture of a bloodied ballot box this week. Past elections, after all, have also been violent.
But there is a much greater sense of the unknown about the upcoming elections, from the question of violence to how various parties will perform to whether the elections will be procedurally correct (there is a high risk that lack of preparation for the number of voters will mean not everyone will get to vote, polling stations will run out of material or otherwise be unable to process all voters). And then there is the still largely unasked question: what happens if, after the first round, the results and/or the tensions prompt a panicking military to cancel the poll? It does not seem likely now, but a lack of preparation makes anything possible. An already turbulent Egypt is entering a period of increased turbulence: fasten your seatbelts.
Issandr El Amrani
Ibrahim Eissa, the iconoclastic Egyptian journalist who is highly critical of SCAF, wrote in his op-ed in Tahrir newspaper yesterday:
I fear that the coming round of parliamentary elections will be both the first and final round of elections.
No one wants a postponement of the elections, such a delay would be a national crime. But the elections are severely vulnerable to a cancellation, and with it, the cancellation of national demands, should this opening round of elections be mired in blood.
Every previous election has witnessed injuries and deaths, with not a single one passing without bloodshed. But this was in the framework of controlled elections – under the control of the state, its security apparatus and systematic fraud, and in the presence of judicial supervision unable to protect against killings. Despite this, the situation we find ourselves in now regarding the coming elections is even more dangerous and more problematic!
We’re talking about a horrendous failure on the part of both the military council and the government in the restoration of security on the streets of Egypt. Furthermore, as chaos escalates, disorder increases and vigilantism spreads, daily violence will become the new state of normalcy, and enough signs will be present – cut roadways, raids, kidnappings, robbery, revenge between families – to know that all of Egypt is affected, with no difference between upper and lower Egypt, or the capital from the provinces.
See the rest of the article, translated by The Egypt Report.
Reader Comments (2)
fudge. i have been obsessively following this website and others for months - and this post feels different, the tenor is much more anxious. maybe going to cancel my trip to Alex. been trying to go back since the last year, when the revolution began.
really appreciate everyone's effort on this blog - a
One note , I would not call Rose El Youssef a "Major Weekly Magazine" Since Almasry El Yawm made an investigation into that issue about a year ago I think and they came up with that Rose El Youssef only sells handfull of copies "About hundered or though" and is massively in debt but the previous regime kept lavishing it with $$$ because of its anti Ikhwanism.