Egypt Analysis: The Tragedy of The Opposition (Roccu)

By its glaring inability to take these grievances seriously, the institutional opposition has condemned itself to continuing irrelevance in parliamentary life and has prevented a credible political articulation of the economic and social demands of both industrial and agricultural workers, ignoring that these movements could indeed constitute the much-needed popular support for a political opposition to the Mubarak regime.

Thus, it is not the split between secular and religious opposition, but rather the one between institutional and popular oppositions that constitutes the foundation for the survival --- that's what it is: mere survival – of Egyptian authoritarianism.

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Egypt Video: El Baradei Intervenes After the Elections "The Regime's Last Chance"

Last week, Mohammad el Baradei --- the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a key actor in the National Alliance for Change --- issued a video response to the Parliamentary elections that gave more than 90% of the seats to the ruling National Democratic Party: "We do not have real industry , we do not have real agriculture, we laugh at ourselves and the world laughs at us.... You are not investing in your future, you are investing in the end of what you have, in destroying Egypt and in destroying the future generations."

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WikiLeaks and Egypt: Shame About That Internal Repression

Last February, the US Ambassador in Cairo sent this "scene-setter" for the visit of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, to Egypt.

The priorities in the cable are telling. President Obama's heralded Cairo speech, delivered in June 2009, is the platform for Eight months after President Obama's heralded Cairo speech, for "our Strategic Dialogue and...a new framework for regular bilateral meetings with the Egyptians to explore areas for cooperation and coordination, including examining our respective assessments of strategic threats such as Iran".

But wait a minute. Didn't Obama also speak about the merits of open societies, with political participation and respect for all religions? In the 12th of 14 paragraphs, the cable finally notes the internal situation. It opens with the aspiration, "We continue to promote democratic reform in Egypt, including the expansion of political freedom and pluralism, and respect for human rights", and ends with reality: "The GOE has also used the Emergency Law to target political activity by the Muslim Brotherhood, bloggers and labor demonstrators. The Interior Ministry suppresses political opposition through arrests, harassment and intimidation."

(Interesting Postscript: This week, Al-Ahram published an opinion piece from the head of the European Union delegation to Cairo, Marc Franco. Days after the disputed Egyptian elections, Franco enthused, "Looking back over the last few years, it is only fair to say that Egypt has made courageous steps towards promoting a culture of human rights at all levels of Egyptian society.")

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Egypt Snapshot: Mubarak "Pleased" But Protests Continue Over Elections

Yesterday, even as President Hosni Mubarak tried to settle any tensions over this month's Parliamentary elections, in which his ruling National Democratic Party won more than 90% of the seats, there were further signs of troubled political waters.

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Egypt and the Elections: The "Strategic Blunder" of President Mubarak's Party (Hamid)

There is no transition whose beginning is not the consequences --- direct or indirect --- of important divisions within the authoritarian regime itself. Those divisions, in Egypt, are only likely to grow.

For the National Democratic to make a strategic blunder at such a crucial moment in Egypt's history suggests a regime that is nervous, unsure of itself and increasingly incoherent.

The Parliamentary elections were the first such mistake. Whether there will be more ---- and whether the opposition manages to capitalise --- will determine the course Egypt takes in the coming, critical months.

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Egypt Latest: The Second Round of Parliamentary Elections

1940 GMT: Election monitors have said turnout was as low as 5% in some districts. The head of the High Elections Commission operations room, Ahmed Shawqi, said just before polls closed that the turnout was “very low”, blaming it on the withdrawal of the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd Party from the run-offs.

1655 GMT. Residents of Daqahliya's Sandeela district have stormed a local polling station to protest alleged vote-rigging in favor of the two National Democratic Party candidates Noshi al-Basandeeli.

The crowd smashed 17 ballot boxes, tearing up votes and throwing them into the street.

Voting at the polling station was suspended.

1600 GMT: Statement of the Day. Al Jazeera's Ayman Moyheldin reports this comment from the ruling NDP's Atef Masoud: the elections were the will of "the Egyptian people [who] don't want opposition in Parliament".

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Egypt Elections Video: Saturday's Protest Against the Ruling Party's Vote-Rigging

We will be keeping an eye on the second round of Egypt's disputed elections for the Parliament.

On Saturday, activists held a protest in front of Cairo's Press Syndicate, accusing the ruling National Democratic Party of rigging the votes during Sunday's first round.

Egypt Elections Analysis: "The Door for a Challenge to Mubarak is Closed" (Iskander)

The door for a challenger in 2011 to President Hosni Mubarak or, if he declines to run, his son Gamal now seems closed. The failure of the opposition parties to win seats and the withdrawal of al-Wafd from this Sunday’s second round of elections [Editor's Note: The Muslim Brotherhood has also pulled out], comes on top of only eight victories for opposition and independent candidate in the first round.

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Egypt Latest: "Elections Marred by Rigging & Violence"

UPDATE 1450 GMT: Jack Shenker in The Guardian of London: "[This election] was about sending a message that – whichever elements from within the existing autocracy triumph in the internecine battles to come – the transition from one pharaoh to another will take place wholly within that autocracy, with all other voices excluded."

UPDATE 1445 GMT: The Wafd Party has officially pulled out of the second round of voting.

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Egypt Latest: The Ruling Party Wipes Out the Opposition

For earlier news, see the Sunday-Monday and Tuesday updates:

UPDATE 1825 GMT: Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif gives the reassuring statement of the day: the fact that all ministers won their seats proves the government is popular.

UPDATE 1750 GMT: The Muslim Brotherhood have also withdrawn from the second round of the elections.

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