‘What happened to the revolution?’ Egypt left facing choice between Islamists and Mubarak’s last prime minister

May 25th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Both men may ironically have been fatally damaged by being considered such
favourites that they were invited to contest a one-on-one television debate,
in which they successfully eviscerated each other politically. Mr Aboul
Fotouh came over as a “flip-flop” candidate and Mr Moussa, 75, as
anti-Muslim, elderly and aloof.

Many liberals had rested their hopes on a strong showing by Hamdeen Sabahi,
the Left-wing nationalist whose late surge in the polls raised expectations.
At one stage, he was still in with a chance of pipping Mr Shafiq for the
second run-off place, but ended up third.

Hanging over the result was a threat of more of the bouts of violence that
have plagued the country since Mr Mubarak stepped down, with Mr Shafiq
promising no quarter to opponents threatening to “return to the square” to
prevent his election.

However, some political analysts said that the middle-of-the-road candidates,
in speaking to a battle of ideas, neglected issues which mattered more to
the mass of Egypt’s voters and which both the Brotherhood and Mr Shafiq
hammered home.

The Brotherhood put forward a comprehensive programme for social change,
calculated to appeal to the provincial lower middle classes, called the
Renaissance Project and focusing on education, social justice and a free
market economy.

Mr Shafiq stood as a law-and-order candidate, appealing to those who claimed
there had been an increase in crime since many of the feared and often
corrupt police force were taken off the streets during the revolution.

He seems to have benefited from a big swing in his favour from Egypt’s
Christian minority which fears the rise of political Islam. While the Muslim
Brotherhood promised to respect Christians’ rights, few of the other
candidates went out of their way to court their votes by promising to
protect them.