People fear that there will be another massacre will be committed in the weekend especially that the telecommunications in Homs are reportedly cut.
Already according to tweeps from inside Syria most social networks and news websites have been blocked in Syria since early morning and that users there returned to the proxies.
The murder of Basel Shehade in Homs is the main event highlighted in the past 24 hours. It turns out that Shehade went to Homs in order to present his condolences to a friend who lost a friend in the revolution !!
Here is the coffin of late Basel, May Allah bless his soul. It turned out that the Christian neighborhood in the city of Homs had more than its share from the daily shelling because of Basel.
The funeral of Basel Shehade in Homs
Here is a photo showing an ad of the memorial service held at one of Homs mosque for the martyrs including Basel.
And Amr Khaled got news for you : He will found a political party called ‘Egypt Future’ that it is not actually political party but rather an independent moderate social development for all Egyptians party that will work in the governorates to solve the social and economic problems there. “I think Life Makers movement which he heads does this already !!”
Amr Khaled : I am going to have a party
Despite being an Islamist preacher , Khaled makes it clear that the party is open for all Egyptians with no political or ideological affiliation.
Al Watan Newspaper published today a supplement its journalists believe to be the scoop of the year : The diaries of Mubarak in jail !!
Mubarak standing and his son Alaa
The report shows exclusive photos of Mubarak standing in his trial as well his son Alaa speaking to someone smiling and Mubarak on bed whereas his son Gamal besides him in court. The report also includes info from unknown sources about what Mubarak used to do in the past year and half. Of course if you want my opinion , I think it was better to publish the photos only because seriously no one buys these tales from unknown sources about what Mubarak did that or this or Mubarak said this or that which nobody buys anymore !! Here are some examples :
Mubarak believes that all the presidential candidates fighting for the presidential posts are idiots except Ahmed Shafik !!
Mubarak was visited by the Prince of Kuwait and Sultan of Oman !! “It was denied by Kuwaiti embassy in Cairo ‘
Mubarak thinks SCAF is so weak and soft !!
Anyhow one must ask : Why did Al Watan publish this report just days before the finale of Mubarak’s trial on June 2nd ,2012 ? I do not trust Mohamed Amin nor Magdy El Gald ,Al Watan’s editor in chief and I will tell you why.
Girls from Al Houlah , I wonder if they were alive
I hope they are
Several countries from around the globe have expelled the Syrian ambassadors as an official reaction yesterday after the terrible Al Houlah massacre . These countries are : France , Germany, Belgium , Switzerland , Spain ,Netherlands, Portugal , Italy, Australia , Bulgaria , Canada and New Zealand
Now Japan joined the countries that have expelled the Syrian ambassador for Al Houlah massacre !!
France was first followed by Germany and it was matter of hours other EU and foreign countries followed that step that is considered an important international escalation.
The White House issued this statement : Despite every option is currently on the table , the US direct military intervention would cause more chaos in the country. Hilary Clinton , the secretary of state also issued a statement regarding the massacre.
The US will not send its troops except after the scene is ready for the cavalry as at the same time it has got presidential elections in November , its most Important and biggest alley in the region “Egypt” is on the verge of the unknown.
I will not comment on what happened last night because I do not approve on storming private properties at all, the right of protesting can not be disputed and actually observers have warned of instability in Egypt if Shafik is elected as a president.
Of course these observers do not know that Shafik is ready for this and got a plan for any instability : Execution style in one month !!
He will restore order in the country in a month using executions !!
He will have clash soon or later with the Islamists in the country as he believes they have got armed militias and they want to turn the country in to Lebanon
Contrary to what the world thinks the Egyptian people obedient !!!!!!! Obedient !!
It is worth to mention that many of the American Chamber members from Egyptian businessmen were members in the former NDP who had connections with the former regime directly and fear on their financial interests.
Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotouh held a press conference tody at Kempenski hotel in Garden City to discuss the presidential elections as well his plans for the future.
Regarding the elections AMAF thinks that the elections are not that fair compared to the parilamentary elections for the following reasons :
Abu El Fotouh in the presser
The presidential elections committee "PEC" did not give his campaign the lists of voters despite in the parliamentary elections the elections committee gave all candidates the lists of voters in each district.
The campaign's delegates were forced to leave the polling stations by the security forces from 9 PM Thursday to 8 AM Friday.
The bribes whether from money or food supply reported to be used in the elections.
Regarding the future of Strong Egypt , AMAF said that he will have meetings with the volunteers and members of his Campaign to discuss the future of the project hinting out the possibility of turning it into a movement or even a party. AMAF is speaking about participating in local councils elections " this made me by happy"
About runoffs , he will not endorse any presidential candidate in the runoffs but he tells his supporters not to vote for former regime icons aka Ahmed Shafik. He wants the runoffs to be adjourned coz the elections can be cancelled as the constitutional court will issue its rule regarding the disenfranchisement law in the upcoming 3 weeks. This law can ban Shafik from political activities.
He did not meet Mohamd Morsi or tried to convince Al Gama'a Al Islamiyya to endorse the Muslim brotherhood's candidate.
By the way contrary to what Khaled Youssef claimed , he did not call Hamdeen Sabbahi and tried to convince to endorse Morsi.
Here is the video :
The way Amr Moussa also had a presser this morning too.
SPEC has announced the results of the first stage of the presidential elections held on May 23th and 24th officially from few minutes ago and they are as follow :
Mohamed Morsi : 5,764,968 votes
Ahmed Shafik : 5,505,327 votes
Hamdeen Sabbahi : 4,823,273 votes
Abu El Fotouh : 4,650,239 vote
The runoffs will be between Morsi and Shafik
Not a big surprise
Other numbers :
The no. of voters in the presidential elections are : 23, 670,236 voters
The no. of right votes in the elections are : 23, 256,516 voters
Abla Fahita tells her daughter that they are only 4 years when it comes to the upcoming presidential term.
Abla Fahita and her daughter voted for Hamdeen Sabbahi by the way.
Abla Fahita : Homma 4 years
Abla Fahita or to be accurate Shosho Abu Gahl and her daughter Caro Carolina are like a mini puppet show on YouTube that gained huge success among social network users since 2011. It is hilarious show making from social issues.
I dedicate this to the 10 million who did not vote for Shafik or Morsi as well to all Egyptians who did not vote !!
The Presidential elections committee is going to announce in the following minutes the results of the first stage of the elections by the way. p.s : The background music is taken from a famous old Egyptian TV program’s intro called “My life” that used for 3 decades discuss the social problems of citizens on air. New generations do not this show nor its famous TV host “Faiza Wassef”
This was the good news of the day : Zakaria Azmi , the former chief of staff of Mubarak has been sentenced 7 years in jail and fined $ 6 million for corruption charges.
I remember how Azmi was among the most powerful men in Egypt for nearly 30 years and how he was controlling Egypt from his office.
Now I am waiting to read the memories of Zakaria Azmi which I know that either he is working on or he will work on in order to clear his name.
In our long struggle for democracy , for the strong Egypt we should not forget these small victories. It is like being in a war , our spirit should not be down all the time.
We had presidential elections from two years we dreamt about in our wildest dreams.
Of course next week we will have the big Mubarak’s trial finale.
The Muslim brotherhood English website “Ikhwan Web” Twitter account has been hacked from several hours ago by a hacker called “TacticiaN”
The hacker who changed the profile’s avatar from the Ikhwan’s slogan to late Khaled Said’s avatar May Allah bless his soul let that tweet with that message after he was accused of being a Mubarak’s regime remnant.
Down with the MB & the remnants of the regime! Long live the revolution..dedicated to the martyrs..Khaled Said forever...
It seem that the IT boys in MB have failed to restore both accounts so far.
A screencap for Ikhwan Web showing the twitter account hacked on the right
Ironically most people are praising the hacking and sending him “Well done” mentions on twitter whether from inside Egypt or outside it.
It is not the first time something like this happens , I remember that several twitter celebs from politicians and activists faced the same thing like former Presidential candidate and Politician Ayman Nour and activist Nawara Negm who did not restore back their twitter account except when the hackers returned back their passwords.
By the way speaking about twitter and social media , I think the Muslim brotherhood tweeps should revise themselves when it comes to speaking to the people. In the past 48 hours they have been so rude and arrogant attacking people despite they are in the desperate need for every vote and at the time Shafik and his supporters are playing it nice with the revolutionaries we find MB tweeps calling us dogs !!!!!!
We are being attacked because we are asking for guarantees of the civility of the state in return of electing Morsi. We are being attacked because we ask regular non-politicalized people to think as they want to choose between Shafik and Morsi.
MB tweeps you are in very weak position now , be polite as Islam orders you.
I said it before whenever all the whole world is watching Egypt, Bashar El Assad’s troops commit horrible massacre in Syria either in Homs or Hama.
Unfortunately this time in Homs, the alleged armed Shabiha stormed civilians’ houses in the city of Houla slaughtering tens of women and children including toddlers and babies today.
Here is a clip allegedly filmed in Houla in the past 24 hours showing the bodies of those civilians that were killed, it is extremely graphic. “+18”
When I look out to the results I found out 9 million Egyptians voted for the revolutionary candidates “Sabbahi , Abu El Fotouh and Ali” where 5 million Egyptians voted for Shafik out of 25 million voters participating in this round then the majority chose the revolution.
The biggest mistake that all people spoke about how having several candidates will divide the votes and yet we love to fall in to the trap while we see it in front of us !!
Hamdeen Sabbahi is the big surprise of the presidential race this year considering the big leap he got and the fact he scored nearly one million vote in Cairo. Sabbahi’s campaign has been poor throughout the race but in the past two weeks it had a great push forward financially and publicly when Abu El Fotouh did not do well in the presidential debate. The Pro-revolutionaries who do not want to vote for Abu El Fotouh because he is an Islamist voted for Hamdeen.
Hamdeen Sabbahi according to the results we have is popular in the big cities.
Mr. Serhan said. “The revolution has ended,” he said. “It is one and a half years.”
“The revolution has ended” interesting words from the official spokesperson of a presidential candidate who would never have imagined to run for presidency if it were not for the revolution.
Knowing how this quote can damage Shafik’s image abroad as well inside , Sarhan denied saying this and accused NY Times Cairo Bureau chief David Kirckpatrick of editing his phone call with him to make him appear as Anti #Jan25.
Well as a follower of Serhan as a tweep and as a blogger, I know that he is not fond of the #Jan25 revolution and he believes that Mubarak’s economic policies were not bad. Of course now he is trying to make Shafik’s campaign and Shafik as revolution friendly as possible , today he appeared on TV claiming that our revolution was hijacked by the Muslim brotherhood !!
I remember last night or the day before I sent to Wael Ghonim a tweet that Shafik’s supporters believe that we are traitors he interfered telling me that it is untrue and Wael Knows him as a friend !!
I do respect Serhan but I wish he respects our minds because Shafik was forced to present his resignation by the revolutionary forces in last February 2011. I do respect Serhan but I wish he respects our minds and admits that the former NDPian officials across the country campaigned for Shafik especially in Upper Egypt. I wish Sarhan respects our mind and admit that Gamal Mubarak’s loyal pressman Abdullah Kamel is the media adviser of Shafik.
Honesty is an important thing.
The results of the presidential elections are indeed considered the end of the revolution as we know and we hope for in Egypt.
Now I fear from the future more than , I fear from Islamist rule and from reproducing Mubarak’s rule once again. I fear if Shafik wins we will enter a true era of violence begins from angry revolutionary depressed youth. I fear that this time the army and police will protect people’s legitimate choice.
I do not know to say or write with knowing the results of the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt , the biggest presidential elections many Arabs looked at the new era of the Arab world.
I have spent all night crying and saying stuff I should not say , things I know that I should not write because my rage , things I fear that I would say and then I feel sorry about my Egyptian people.
My only condolences that from 90 million Egyptians only 50% of the eligible voters in the country “50 million” participated in this election so we are speaking about 25 million voters only , the historical elections that reminds me with the Six Days war defeat.
I do not have any words , it is like choosing between two hells : The Muslim brotherood or Shafiq !!!
We are all to blame especially the #Jan25 Revolutionaries who set back in bubbly Cairo ‘that voted for Shafiq’ and in their closed social networks realms. We are responsible for this without doubt.
I do not want to speak now but one thing for sure I feel my generation is have the same feeling the 1967 generation felt and I fear from that feeling.
The polling stations have opened their doors for voters from almost an hour ago. The turnout is noticeably higher compared to yesterday in this time from my own observation.
The Qomia language school got a long women’s queue while a mixed polling station at Technical journalism institute in Boulaq got medium size queues. It is worth to mention that it is an official day off in the public sector and many private sector companies gave its employees a day off in order to vote. There are long queues in Maadi.
The streets are empty and many shops closed their doors.
The turnout in the governorates is not high according to the reports. May be we are speaking about early morning so things may change like what happened yesterday.
Now something interesting took place yesterday when a group of youth including a dear friend who made a small protest in the heart of Mohendessin yesterday , in the famous Mostafa Mahmoud calling citizens to elect “Batman" as president of Egypt.
Batman for president : From Mostafa Mahmoud by Youm 7
The man behind this idea who I do not know his name says that he decided to do this in order to break down tensions in the society due to presidential campaigns. I love how he speaks with that girl from street children and tells her that Batman will solve her problem.
It is hilarious.
@10:33 AM
Two hours have passed and there is recorded turnout in Fayoum and Assuit in Upper Egypt and Behaira in Delta. Ahram gate says Agouza area where I live got low turnout, it is strange thing.
There is moderate turnout in Luxor.
So I got a tip from activists and observers from Upper Egypt that Shafik and activists spoke to the leaders of tribes in Qena claiming that the revolution will turn the youth there against them and that the Sufis and Christians are going to vote for him. On the other hand the women of Muslim brotherhood go in door to door to convince the ladies to elect Morsi !!
@12:00 PM
A 72 years old pensioner has passed away outside a polling station in El Zahar , Old Cairo when he had a sudden heart attack.
Yesterday An Ahmed Shafik delegate gave birth inside a polling station to a boy she named “Ahmed Shafik” !!
Filed Marshal Tantawy , General Anan , Lt.General Mohamed El Assar are visiting the polling stations in Cairo.
Presidential elections committee will have a press conference tonight to discuss what happened through out the day as well votes count.
And Hakim , our pop star has voted , it is unclear who he voted for.
According to sources both Mohamed Mounir and Amr Diab voted for Hamdeen Sabbahi. I found the news of Diab strange because he made a song for Ahmed Shafik !!
Adel Emam also voted , I bet he voted either for Moussa or Shafik despite he denied publicly that he endorsed Shafik publicly.
Of course I will not be surprised if he voted for Morsi not because his daughter's father in law is a leading member in MB but because he is a pragmatic person !! This is the first time Emam appears in public after the court's controversial rule to imprison him for defaming Islam !!!!!!!! Emam spoke with AFP and I bet he gave press a lot to discuss today.
Khaled Said's mom Mrs. Laila Marzouk voted today , she voted for Hamdeen Sabbahi.
A friend on twitter told me that the MB ladies are having their door to door campaign in El Hadra district in Alexandria annoying her aunt !!
@1:15 PM
The Presidential elections committee "PEC" has extending the voting period till 9 PM.
Now Mursi, Hamdeen , Abu El Fotouh's campaigns claim that their candidates are advancing till this moment.
Now I would like to share this photo and remember the past in order to see where we heading to in the future
Now a quick look to my family :
My mom , my aunt and myself have elected Abu El Fotouh.
My second aunt and cousin have elected Hamdeen Sabbahi.
My mom's two cousin are going to elect Abu El Fotouh while their sister is going to elected Sabbahi and her son is going to elected Mohamed Morsi.
Many Egyptian families got this diversity when it comes to voting and presidential elections.
Former PM Essam Sharaf hinted out that he did not elect a former regime official which means he did not Moussa or Shafik in a short statement issued on his official Facebook page on Wednesday.
I chose the candidate who believes that what happened was a true popular revolution , he believes that the revolution did not achieve its goals and achieving these goals are his aim and is able to create a national consensus with less polarization
I think this applies more to Abu El Fotouh , national consensus is his power point more than Sabbahi.
@1:48 PM
We do not have official exit polls in Egypt but Righters and Citizenship center issued a field report about exist polls from 5 different governorates “Cairo, Alexandria , Sharkia , Ismailia and Aswan” :
They asked 1627 who they had voted for in the presidential elections on Wednesday and the results came as follows :
Mohamed Morsi : 25.8%
Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotouh : 23.2%
Ahmed Shafik : 20.7%
Moussa : 11.3%
Sabbahi : 9.5%
Other candidates : 4.7%
Nullified their vote : 1.4%
Refused to reveal their candidates : 3.4 %
I do not know if we should trust this poll that gave hope to Abu El Fotouh’s supporters and depressed Moussa’s supporters. I can not take this poll as a concrete example.
@6:48 PM
Ok lots of things happened in the past 5 hours. First I visit the Kommia language school and met the Judge supervising Agouza district and he told me that the votes count will start as soon as the polling station closes its doors and it can start at 10 PM or even 11 PM.
The head of subsidiary commission in Kommia language told me that I can come and attend the count as I have got journalist permit.
The turnout was low , I asked him and he told me it was then "at 5 PM" that yesterday the turnout was bigger.
The number of voters so far that came was close to 3000 till then out of 4650 or something.
The committee was using its third box.
I slept for two hours to wake up on a big fight between Moussa and Shafik after days of crossfire between the two campaigns. Moussa called Shafik and his campaign as liars who spread false elections results reminding us with Shafik's past history with Mubarak regime !!
Moussa asked Shafik to withdraw from his candidacy in his favor where as Shafik fired back and said that Moussa is jealous from his success and he is the one who should withdraw from the race !!
Moussa held a press conference later.
The turnout according to several eye witnesses in several governorates and areas is increasing compared to the morning and it expected thing after the sunset.
According to some expectations the turnout may reach between 40%-50%.
Now these are very interesting tweets by Military secrets account on twitter that follows unofficially the army.
@9:22 PM
Votes count have started from 22 minutes ago officially in Egypt. The votes count has started in Cairo , Qena, Mansoura, Matrouh , Maniya , New Valley and North Sinai.
I am so nervous.
By the way in those 20 minutes I went to the nearest polling station to my house and tried to attend the count using my reporter's permit but I failed as I should have been inside the polling station before closing the doors. The good thing I know where the central electoral commission of my area and insh Allah I will head there in early morning.
Now The reformists judges trend in Egypt launched a website called "The parallel elections commission" that will report results directly from subsidiary polling stations.
I feel that I am living the night of knowing my third secondary year in school , I remember that night. Millions of Egyptians will not sleep tonight for sure.
@9:54 PM
And the count is on , it is extremely exciting. Some polling stations air its vote count on TV. Now on twitter tweeps from all over the country share the preliminary results from the polling stations. You can follow them on #egyelections.
One thing for sure Mohamed Morsi is in the lead
@11:01 PM
The count is on and twitter is on fire so are my nerves thus I will not share any preliminary result because we are speaking about over 10,000 polling stations in the country.
And the voting girl has participated and voted in Egypt’s presidential elections 2012 , the first Egyptian multi-candidate presidential elections.
I went To my polling station “Orman secondary school for girls” this afternoon at 4.30 PM in Agouza area. It was empty when I arrived so I asked the army personnel and they told me that the turnout was higher in the morning. It is worth to mention that the heat is unbearable in the morning. My polling station got a cross section of classes. It is women only polling station. The army personnel checked my ID.
When I went inside I found a queue , very short one made of three ladies. The queues are organized by a coordinator who checks your number in the voters registration and makes you sign your attendance. I was on the verge of having a fight with three ladies from Shafik supporters who were making fun from Tahrir square and its protesters , the protesters who made it possible for them to vote in an election like that for the first time in their life. Instead I reminded them in a firm voice that the Presidential elections committee made it clear that no talks about presidential candidates will be allowed in the queue. I was tired and not smiling.
The polling stations have been opened from 15 minutes yet there are long queues in front of these stations for an hour ago , from 7 AM. Some polling stations have opened , some have not opened yet. The army and police are protecting the polling station.
Here is a photo I took for a polling station in Boulaq Abu Ela.
TV stations like ONTV and Al Jazeera Misr are having special coverage for presidential elections since early hours.
Quick info the biggest voting bloc according to governorates are : Cairo “6 millions” , Giza “4 million” then Sharkia in Nile Delta. We are speaking about 50 million Egyptians choosing their president on two days it is a big thing.
The army including navy forces and air forces are participating in securing in the elections.
The navy forces are security Alexandria today
@9:00 AM
Amr Moussa has arrived to Fatma Anan School Polling station in New Cairo to vote , it is near from his home and he is standing in a long queue refusing to leave his place. He is refusing to speak to the media.
Abu El Fotouh has arrived to Ibn El Nafis school polling station in Nasr City , he is refusing to speak to the media also.
Jimmy Carter has arrived to a polling station in Sayyida Zeinab in old Cairo to observe the elections.
Here are important numbers and facts about presidential elections in Egypt :
After 12 hours Egyptians will vote in the first presidential elections ever.
This is the first real multi-candidate presidential elections in the history of Egypt.
The number of registered eligible voters inside Egypt is : 50,407,266
The number of judges participating in this election is : 14,509
The number of the general polling stations in the country is : 351
The number of polling stations is : 9334
The number of subsidiary poll stations : 13, 097
The women judges participating in the elections as supervisors :1400 , 200 of them will participate in mixed polling stations and 1200 will participate in women polling stations.
The ladies wearing Niqab will have to show their faces for the women judges.
We have got realistically 11 candidate running for the position.
The police and the army “paratroops , special forces and air forces as well navy forces” are participating in securing the elections.
PM Kamel Ganzoury issued an order to all ministries and official agencies to give its employees a day off to vote in the elections whether on Wednesday or Thursday. Many companies are giving days off to their employees on Thursday to vote.
There are two problems I think people have ignored.
The eligible voters who work in tourism away from their registered home towns like for instance those from Upper Egypt and work in Gouna can’t vote.
Same issue or problem is faced by Egyptians who work in oil fields.
Yes I support Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotouh for presidency , it is not a secret that I have declared before publicly in my post about his campaign's final event "Strong Egypt".
I support Abu El Fotouh for presidency and I know that he is an Islamist and former Muslim brotherhood leading member who believes in the Islamic project while I am liberal person.I support him and I know he is not the prefect dream presidential candidate for me.
I support Abu El Fotouh because I know that I am not electing a person but more of an executive with team of advisers.
I support Abu El Fotouh because his team included experts from left to right.
And Presidential Elections Committee “PEC” has declared the results of the presidential elections of the Egyptian expats in 165 countries around the globe tonight except Saudi Arabia.
The presidential campaigns of Abu El Fotouh and Khaled Ali have presented petitions to PEC after refusing complains and reports about possible election fraud in favor of MB’s Mohamed Morsi. There are reports that MB members bought and bribed poor Egyptian expats from workers to get their vote for Morsi.
Already from what I understood the results of the Mail vote have been cancelled.
I have received some of the reports indeed especially concerning the Mail vote.
According to the data and numbers announced the lucky ones in this round are : Mohmaed Morsi “107,106 votes including Saudi Arabia” , Abu El Fotouh “82,397 votes”, Hamdeen Sabbahi “46,370 votes” , Amr Moussa “40,318 votes and Ahmed Shafik got “ 22,787 votes”.
Morsi got lots of votes in Gulf without doubt especially in Saudi Arabia where the number of voters is equal to the rest of the Egyptian expat voters around the globe. Abu El Fotouh and Morsi are leading the elections abroad as well Hamdeen Sabbahi.
Wait for in depth early morning analysis , it is 24 hours before our real presidential elections ya People.
Sometimes polls play important role in leading the opinion in the society than in reflecting the opinion in the society , this role is often noticed in time of the elections some undecided voters consider the polls a good source to choose the winning horse to bet on in the elections.
In the past two week the polls of Ahram center for strategic and political studies and Al Masry Al Youm's Baseera centre showed a rise Ahmed Shafik, Mohamed Mursi and Hamdeen Sabbahi and a decline for both Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotouh despite Moussa was leading the polls.
According to Ahram Center the leading candidates in the latest poll conducted from May 14th to 17th were : Moussa "31.7%" {going down} , Shafik "22.6%" {going up} , Mohamed Morsi "14.8%" {going up} , Abu El Fotouh "14.6%" {going down} and Sabbahi "11.7%" {going up}.
According to Baseera Center conducted in the same period : Ahmed Shafik "19.35%" , Amr Moussa "14.6%" , Abu El Fotouh "12.4%" , Sabbhi "9.5%" and Morsi "9%".
Personally I believe the voting bloc was going to vote to Omar Sulieman has gone to Shafik where us the conservative part of Abu Ismail's voting bloc has gone to Mursi as he is more conservative than Abu El Fotouh.
The question is can we trust these Egyptian polls ?
It is only matter of hours and the first real presidential elections will start in Egypt , it is only matter of hours and honestly we do not know who will be the next president of Egypt.
Now I wrote before about the Christian vote in Egypt and tonight I believe I should write another important voting bloc in Egypt : The Upper Egyptian vote.
The main tribes in Upper Egypt are : Al Hawara , Al Arab, Al Ashraf , Gowhina, Bani Helal, Tamim,Harab and Al Rashida.
Upper Egypt suffers from poverty , illness and unemployment more than area in the country.
Upper Egypt got tons of social problems when it comes to customs and traditions that are against religion and law.
Upper Egypt has got a bitter history with the state because of illegal arms trade and the bloody past of Jihadi militant groups in 1980s and 1990s
Upper Egypt has got huge economic potentials if it is reached in the right way.
When it comes to the Islamist vote in Upper Egypt , we are speaking here about Al Gama'a Al Islamiyaa and it's political arm "The development and building party" more than the Muslim brotherhood. Al Gama'a Al Islamiyaa endorses Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotouh yet we should not forget that the MB and its political arm " The freedom and justice party" scored several seats in Upper Egypt.
Tonight a tribal Sheik from the famous Al Sawaraka tribe has been assassinated from few hours ago. Sheikh Nayaf Al Sawaraka was shot down when a group of militants opened their fire in front of the city council in the city of Al Arish. They fled in a car and the man was transferred to a hospital to die there.
North Sinai is on alert , security authorities whether police or army are on alert. It is unclear the motives behind this act which is the first of its kind when I recount the violence in Sinai as we are speaking about tribal chief.
Could it be for tribal differences ?! I do not know , the man is known for wisdom and was like a meditator among tribes according to news reports. The time and place are more than alarming.
There are armed Jihadi Salafist groups in Sinai and for some reason the authorities in the past year and half left these groups to flourish. These armed groups are not under the control of the local tribes , they work according to their leaders.
The official Abu El Fotouh "AMAF" campaign announced that it would end its official activities on Friday in a big show off for the popularity of the moderate Islamist candidate. The event got an ad that is worth thousands of pounds in Ahram weekly Friday issue. It was supposed to be at Cairo international stadium but the stadium's administration refused the event despite the Muslim brotherhood and Freedom and Justice party organized a big event for Mohamed Morsi at Mansoura stadium in the city of Mansoura last month !! Anyhow they moved it to Al Gazeeria Youth center in Zamalek this is better because It would not be easy to go to Nasr city on Friday night
The event included hosting prominent figures in the society that endorses Abu El Fotouh that make him the man who u unit ideologies behind his idea of "strong Egypt" , just look to the speakers of the events : Director Mohamed Diab , director Amr Salama , Activist Wael Ghonim, singer Hamza Namira , actress Hanan Turk , actress Athar El Hakim, MP Mostafa El Nagar , MP Essam Sultan, Al wasat party leader Abu Ela Mady, Al Nour party spokesperson Nadar Bakr were some of the names announced.
Egypt and Algeria have lost tonight a true diva , Warda Al-Jazairia or just simply Warda “1940-2012” had passed away in her house in Cairo after suffering a cardiac arrest. The Algerian president will send a private jet to transfer her body to Algeria where she will be buried in the Great Algerians cemetery that include the tomb of Algerian president Houari Boumediene there. Warda in Arabic means a rose in English
The French born half Algerian half Lebanese singer is part of Egyptian culture singing scene memory , a true legend when I remember her songs which new generations ignore. I feel so sad.
I loved her songs , her voice and her style , she was a true diva.
Now I know my words will make some Algerians angry but I consider her Egyptian as much as they consider her Algerian. I can’t forget how she sang for Egypt after 1973 war chanting “How beautiful my country is”, this love in her voice in Egypt was just incredible.
Warda : Helwa Beladi 1973
A rising star in the Arab world in late 1950s and 1960s , the golden years of Warda were in the 1970s especially after her marriage from famous music composer Baligah Hamdy as they presented some of the best romantic Arabic songs.
We spoke about the man who will be the next but we have not spoken about the lady who will be and thus here is my attempt to gather some info about the future First lady of Egypt. There is no particular order for this list that included only the top presidential candidates’ wives to save your time as well mine.
Laila Badawy
Laila ,Moussa and their granddaughter Amina
Laila Badawy is the wife of Amr Moussa and she is familiar with protocols after living decades as a wife of diplomat. Laila descends from famous family , her uncle is famous constitutional law guru Tharwat Badawy.
As a fresh graduate of Faculty of engineering “University of Alexandria” she married young diplomat Moussa and moved with him to New York where he was working in 1968 in the Egyptian commission in UN.
She completed her studies in the US then gave birth to her children Hazem and Hania then she continued to have studies whether in Cairo university or university of Columbia. When Moussa was our ambassador in India , she was a volunteer in University of Delhi.
She is a very beautiful lady who descends from rich family. Her photos can be seen in the lifestyle magazines from time to time in Egypt. She is active in charity. She is also a member in some Lions clubs if I am not mistaken. She is well known as “Laila Hanem” in close circles yet despite this title reminds some with Suzanne Mubarak still in very few statements to the media , Laila Badawy made sure that she will not be involved in politics. Badawy and Mousa are grandparents.
Azza Tawfik
Late Azza Tawfik
Azza Tawfik was the late wife of Ahmed Shafik, a daughter of former minister and free officer who has just passed away from less than month ago after long battle with Cancer. Shafik did not speak that much about his wife , the mother of his three daughters despite he looked sad in some interviews right after her death. He only took 3 days off his campaign before returning back on track.
Personally I can’t imagine how he went on campaigning whether in her last days or even in the time he should mourn her yet I respect that he did not use his sickness or marriage to win sympathy. “I remember John Edwards”
Here is an interesting trailer for an interesting documentary discussing an interesting topic in Egypt : The exodus of Egyptian Jews in the 20th century.
Jews of Egypt
It is the first time to know that an Egyptian Jew had informed Nasser with the Plan of the 1956 trio-invasion against Egypt in advance. I am speechless about that. “As usual Nasser did nothing , just like in 1967”
The big surprise is that that Egyptian Jew was famous leftist anti Zionist activist Henri Curiel who founded the famous HAMETU communist movement that was arrested several times for their activities against the King.
As expected the documentary is being covered in English more than in Arabic , I know we got overwhelming issues but this documentary needs to be highlighted in Egyptian media.
Jews of Egypt is directed by Amir Ramsis and produced by Haitham El-Khamissi
The Egyptian Jews who are living in Egypt are expected about 100 , mostly old Egyptians.
The one of the two last surviving members of the original Revolution commanding council of 1952 and the founder of Egyptian intelligence Zakaria Mohy El Din “1918-2012” has passed away today after very busy and interesting political career and even longer time in silence away from public political life after retirement in 1968.
You can read his biography in Wikipedia , still I can tell you that since meeting Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1940 his role in shaping the political history of Egypt began to take place. Among the positions he occupied in his considerable short yet crowded political life were : Head of military intelligence , minister of interior , head of high dam committee , prime minister of Egypt and the vice president of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
OF course for those who know the history of Zakaria Mohi El Din very well , the first thing comes to their mind wen they hear their name is that who founded the Egyptian intelligence “GIS” in 1954. {He was 36 years old then}
In 1967 after the humiliating defeat of the six days war Nasser announced that he was going to step down leaving presidency to his first vice-president Zakaria Mohi El Din but millions of Egyptians refused that step down and in 1968 Mohi El Din suddenly resigned and decided to quit politics altogether. In the same year he had sent a letter to Gamal Abdel Nasser asking him to adopt democratic policies in the country.
There is something big happening on today in the Middle East as 3500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons including Egyptian and Arab prisoners are on their 29th day of their hunger strike that led by prisoners Bilal Thayb and Thaer Halahleh who entered their 79th day of their open hunger strike today.
Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Thayb
The movement of Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike started with Khader Adnan who started a new phase of Palestinian resistance regardless of what you think.
The hunger strike of Palestinian Prisoners have taken the Egyptian and Arab social media by storm since early morning when users on Facebook and Twitter changed their avatars and profile photos to that iconic brown avatar made by Hafez Omar.
The famous original avatar
Officially from several hours ago Egyptian , Palestinian and Israeli governments announced that the Egyptian intelligence managed to find a reach for a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians according to news agencies and official spokespersons from Palestine and Israel.
I do not know where the truth is but I hope MOH tells the truth.
FGM is banned according to law in Egypt. As debatable matter among Muslim scholars in Egypt , FGM is an old African practice that is not found in others parts of Muslim world.
The problem of Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotoh is that he is trying to win everybody’s vote in a very polarized society , he is trying to win the liberal vote but many of them believe that he is an Islamist candidate claiming to be liberal friendly yet he got this secret Muslim brotherhood agenda. For Islamists and Salafists he is just a man who is ready to sell his principles to get the liberal vote and for the revolutionaries , he is seemed to be soft when it comes to the army and SCAF where as for the army and their supporters he is a Pro-revolutionary anarchist who wants to destroy the army and used to be supportive of militant Islamist terrorist groups in the past.
It is hard to please everybody indeed despite his attempt to appear as the moderate candidate who units all Egyptians with all their political, social and religious differences behind him and his team. His attempts unfortunately is making him appear as if he were contradicting himself in many instances with different statements in interviews and public meeting.
The major problem facing the popular presidential candidate is many liberals as many non politicalized Egyptians believe that he is the secret candidate of the Muslim brotherhood despite he left it in 2011 officially after years of not only being a leading member in the famous Islamist political group but also a part of the reformist branch in the group. In this post I will try to shade some light about the relation between the Muslim brotherhood.
And Egyptian chronicles polls are back as you see in the past few days , there are several polls I have posted already yet the main poll I am asking all Egyptians “Only Egyptians” to participate in from all over the world.
The answers include all the 13 presidential candidates as two answers for boycotters and those who got another name that should be included in the list like for instance Belly dancer Hiatem !!
You can find the main poll in its page which I ask you to share among your Egyptian friends and family. The main poll in its page will continue till May 24th , 2012.
There will be another poll insh Allah based on the results of the first round of the presidential elections.
There are other polls I post in the past few days in several posts I think you will find it interesting like :
These are my comments and thoughts about Egypt’s presidential candidates TV debate on air that was aired yesterday in joint broadcast on ONTV and DreamTV for 90 minutes. Just like the debate I divided them on to two parts.
Now here is the complete debate itself for those interested in watching the whole thing again.
There is something different in the air without doubt , there is something different indeed because from two years ago nobody has ever imagined that millions of Egyptians would stay up late to watch for 90 minutes a long presidential elections debate between two popular presidential candidates Abdel Moneim Abu El Fotoh and Amr Moussa for the first time in their Republic political history.
Today the first question you ask your friends and relatives on the phone is “What do you think about the debate ?” , “which candidate was better ?”. Today men in mosques discussed the debate and despite some of them were already lobbying for his favorite candidate , yet there are discussion and huge interest in knowing and choosing the next president of Egypt.
