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May 23rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The poll, which comes 15 months after the fall of the former ruler in a popular uprising, is expected to be the most competitive presidential election in Egyptian history. More than 50 million people are registered to elect a new president from 12 candidates.
Around 13,000 polling stations, spread across the country’s 27 provinces, opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and will stay operative until 8 p.m.
The first round takes place on Wednesday and Thursday with official results due out one week later.
The top hopefuls are former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi, independent Islamic candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh and Mubarak’s last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has vowed a fair poll followed by civilian rule.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Rola Talj, political analyst, to hear her opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What are your views about the significance of this day for Egypt and a previous political analyst we spoke to here on Press TV said that he expected some big surprises for the elections. Are you expecting to see some surprises as well?
Talj: Well I do not see big surprises happening today. I think Egypt is up to a second round. It is impossible for any candidate to get the 51 percent today. I think Amr Moussa will have a bad surprise. His chances do not look very good. I think he will get out of the race.
Hamdeen Sabbahi also will get out of the race and the second round will be between Ahmed Mursi, Aboul Fotouh and Ahmed Shafiq and then we must expect any scenario between now and then like if the Brotherhood and the Salafis are not happy with the results we might see some turmoil happening in Egypt for the next few weeks.
Press TV: Ms. Talj, you just mentioned that it is not possible for any candidate to get the outright 51 percent of the Egyptian vote. Can you elaborate on that and tell us what are the Egyptian people looking for in a candidate? What are their preferences in choosing the new president?
Talj: It depends. It is the regular Egyptians even those who follow Islamic rules and they follow real Islam, when I was in Egypt I did not feel that those were very happy with Ahmed Mursi or Aboul Fotouh, they were not that happy with them. They do not represent their aspiration because the Egyptians like to keep the social liberties they have enjoyed for the last three decades.
Most of the people I was talking to would like to see a strong president who will give them civil rights and also would help the economy to grow and help them out of poverty.
But needless to say that there are some foreign forces like Saudi Arabia and Qatar once again mingling with private Egyptian matters and funding the Salafi or the Brotherhood candidates and this is not something the Egyptians are very happy with.
However, of course the Salafi and the Brothers, they do enjoy some support in some areas and might get a good40 percent out of the vote.
At the same time needless to say that during the parliamentary elections a few months ago I have talked to several people who are present on site. They were involved with the elections and it seems the representatives of the Brothers and the Salafis use many, many tricks to influence the voters who most of them cannot read or write.
So they were present on site trying to manipulate the votes of these people. Some afraid this time again the same thing will happen.
At the same time however my feeling is that especially the last few days we heard about the Free Egyptian Army, it seems like in Syria, like in Northern Lebanon, there are some people funding some people in the army in order to create a separate army which will lead to severe strife in Egypt.
If that is the case which is very probable unfortunately then we might see a coup d’état led by the actual army and they would probably seize power and if this scenario happens, then 70 percent of the Egyptian population will endorse it and will support the army.
Press TV: Mrs. Talj, let us turn our attention to the issue of foreign policy for Egypt after a president is elected into office. Of course there is the issue of United States and its close ties with the Egyptian military and let us not forget the Camp David Peace Treaty between Egypt and the Israeli regime.
What are the prospects of first of all the ties that the military has with United States and the influence that the United States has implemented within Egypt over the past three decades and let us talk about the issue of whether the Camp David Accords are on the verge of crumbling?
Talj: Yes I do believe that the Camp David Accords are on the verge of crumbling and the name of the game is completely different. The Egyptian people were never happy with the Camp David agreement nor the Peace Treaty with the Israelis.
I think no matter who is the new president he will have to obey by the street rules and regarding the Camp David most of the Egyptians no matter from which social class they come from or which educational level they come from, they are all opposed to this agreement to the Israelis.
So no matter who is the president it is going to be very challenging for him to go on with the Camp David agreement unless there is a regional peace accord and a final solution for the Palestinians.
Needless to say that in Sinai these days, al-Qaeda and various military militias are extremely active and Israel is watching Sinai very carefully and I wonder if the next war in the region is not going to be between the Israelis and whomever is occupying or taking refuge in the Sinai Valley.
So no matter who is the president the challenges are huge. Of course the US has been backing the Egyptian army but once again you cannot count on the Americans backing anybody because when the name of the game changes they can drop him and drop the army anytime.
The players in the region are so many these days. You have the Russians, you have the Chinese, you have so many powers mingling and playing on Egyptians soil, on the Syrian soil, on Lebanese soil etc. needless to count them because they are so many.
Russia is considering the region as its battle ground against the Western plans to divide the region. So what’s coming in the next few months especially after the Egyptians elections if they happen, if we have a president in Egypt and if the scenario is peaceful then all the players are going to change cards and we are going to see new alliances, we are going to see new priorities for the Egyptian president and the Egyptian parliament.
Press TV: Ms. Talj, let us turn our attention back to the polls. The Egyptian high presidential election commission, the HPEC has vowed to introduce new security measures and they also said they will also ensure free and fair elections.
In your thoughts is the HPEC credible enough in the eyes of the Egyptian people to carry out the elections free and fair without any chances or threats of vote rigging and transparent?
Talj: Everywhere in the world including the US there is no such a thing called hundred percent clean elections. I am sure some measures if taken in Egypt would help a little bit and I hope they do because as I told you before during the parliament elections they were not very clean and the Brothers were extremely prepared, very well prepared and they did influence the voters and they did change a few things as well in the results.
So any kind of measures would be more than welcome.
AHK/HGH
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