There were local "elections" in Egypt this week with a very low turnout and today was the third day of demonstrations and riots with 56 people wounded in fights with the police.
This could escalate and have serious consequences for the Mubarak regime and its U.S. backers.
The demonstrations are against high food prices, lack of subsidized bread and low wages.
But the real reason behind these is political disenfranchisement. The Muslim Brotherhood and other parties were not allowed to put their candidates on the ballots, instead many were put into prison.
The MB had sought to run some 6,000 candidates in the elections slated to fill some 52,000 posts in local administration throughout the country. The regime placed many kinds of obstacles in their way– including deploying security forces to forbid entry to the places where candidates needed to register, and widespread campaigns of arrest without trial and other forms of intimidation. In the end, only 20 of the MB’s 6,000 chosen candidates were able to make it onto the electoral list, at all.
The Muslim Brotherhood finally called for an election boycott.
Like Hamas, Hizbullah and Sadr’s movement, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic social organisation with its constituency in the poor masses. So far it did not call for violence. But with the political way blocked, at least some of its people will try a different course.
Egypt is not a poor state. It exports natural gas, now even to Israel, but the money it gains is not used to alleviate the life of the poor. The gas and oil is produced under production sharing agreements leaving much of the $14 billion in export revenue with western companies and the rest in the hands of a patronage system.
Mubarak, the U.S. backed dictator, is preparing to lift his son Gamal onto the throne.
Will he have time enough to do so?
Maybe not. To me this looks like people are about ready to take him down. The strategic consequences of a rebellion or insurgency in Egypt would be huge.
Video via Abu Muqawama