katie in cairo, egypt

Tomorow, Wednesday 7 September 2005 will host the first democratic elections held in the Arab Republic of Egypt in its history. After only having been here for about a week, I've been quite limited in being able to sense just exactly what the political climate is right now, but regardless of whether there are vast differences between the way people feel about things now than in the past (though I'm positive they do), there most certainly is a slight tension in the air and many intense feelings floating about. Simply by taking a ride downtown in a taxi cab you are immediately aware of the upcoming election; the highway billboards, streetsigns, monuments, and office buildings are brightly decorated with black, white, red, and green signs, sheets, and clothes proclaiming current President Hosni Mubarak as their savior and future of the the country. Not limited only to Arabic, I've seen signs printed in English and French as well.

I've been attempting to watch Arab TV as much as possible, namely to improve my language listening skills, but cannot go five minutes on much of the news without hearing the name "Mubarak." Of course I don't always know what they're saying, but they most certainly are talking about him quite a bit. The names of opposition leaders here are definitey less than household known names. I've seen signs for the main opposition leader Ayman Nour, who received much media attention after being jailed a while back for actions of his opposition political party, but I am not familiar with the platforms of the others. In actuality, there are actually ten candidates in the presidential election. According to Egyptian law, every citizen over the age of 18 is required to vote (though of course this is very unlikely). All of the candidates have been given equal airtime on television, though Mubarak is often critized for making other advertising difficult for opposition candidates.

Egypt has rejected international observations of the elections, claiming that their own constitutional requirement of having the independent judicial club are sufficient monitors. The Judge's Club, however, has threatened to boycott the electoral monitoring for fear of being used as markers of legitimacy over a corrupt polling.

I've been trying to ask Egyptians (in my limited Arabic) here what they think about the election, though I have yet to hear anyone who isn't voting for Mubarak, that is if they even go to vote. Aside from political apathy by many who view the elections as no different from past "democratic" stirrings, most simply are ready support the status quo. When I point out to them that Mubarak is readily critized for clamping down on political movements, they mostly respond that regardless, with Mubarak there has been no war. Egyptians are happy when they are in peace, and so long as they have a president who will keep them safe and free from severe military obligations, they are pleased to keep him in power.

Classes are on schedule for tomorrow, though I am very curious to see what things will be like here. I'm very curious both about the political tensions brought on mostly by the upper classes as well as the political apathy of what appears to be the lower. Mubarak is sure to win, though this is most certainly a major marker for politics and democracy in Egypt and the greater Middle East and Arab world.

posted by Katie Warren @ 2:17 PM 0 comments