yolland
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Egypt’s parliament delays local elections; U.S. disapproves
The Associated Press
Feb. 14, 2006
CAIRO--The Egyptian parliament Tuesday postponed local elections for two years despite opposition from the United States and a leading fundamentalist group. A spokesman for the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Saeed el-Katatni, said the law was approved by 348 of parliament’s 454 lawmakers. "This is a sad day for Egypt. The dictatorship of majority again tried to exploit their numbers to prevent the voice of the people," el-Katatni said. The Brotherhood made a strong showing in legislative elections last year, and some saw the new law as an effort to block the group’s ascendance.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Bush administration supports Egypt’s progress toward democracy but opposed Mubarak’s decision to put off local elections. The council terms were due to have expired Tuesday, requiring elections within 60 days. But that schedule would have brought a new vote on the heels of parliament elections late last year that saw surprise victories by the Muslim Brotherhood — Egypt’s most powerful fundamentalist group, which increased its representation in the assembly from 15 to 88 seats.
Mubarak, a top ally of the United States, has come under pressure from Washington to increase democracy in a country where he has held near autocratic rule for 29 years. But U.S. officials have expressed concern his government is backing off the drive for reform. After praising Mubarak’s decision to hold the first multi-candidate presidential elections in September, Washington sharply criticized the parliament voting in November and December, which saw violence by police and government supporters trying to prevent Brotherhood and other opposition voters from casting ballots.
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif acknowledged that government interference had prevented even greater Brotherhood gains. "It (the Brotherhood) could have gone up to 40 (more seats)," he told [/i]Newsweek[/i] in an interview published Jan. 30. Mubarak’s National Democratic Party still holds a 311-seat majority in parliament.
"After the victories of the Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Palestine, the NDP is afraid of the pro-Islamist atmosphere," Brotherhood MP Essam Mukhtar said, referring to Mubarak’s party.
Are free elections such an unassailable good in their own right, that we must support them always and everywhere--even when they mean the election of fundamentalist/extremist regimes, or regimes profoundly opposed to the many other aspects of political culture we identify with democracy-- freedom of speech, due process of law, etc.? (...think of how fascism came to power in 1930s Europe for example...)U.S. and Israel Deny Plans to Drive Hamas From Power
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
The New York Times, Feb. 15 2006
WASHINGTON—American and Israeli officials warned again Tuesday that they would cut off aid and transfers of tax receipts to a Hamas-led Palestinian government if it did not renounce violence and recognize Israel. They said, however, that they had no plans to oust such a government. "The bottom line is that there is no U.S.-Israeli plan, project, plot, conspiracy to destabilize or undermine a future Palestinian government," said Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman.
He spoke in response to an article in The New York Times on Tuesday in which American and Israeli officials and diplomats said they were discussing ways to destabilize the Palestinian government, with the intention of forcing new elections. Those officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said the discussions were going on at the highest levels of the State Department and the Israeli government.
The article said that if Hamas did not alter its policy, the two governments would seek to bring about the Palestinian Authority's isolation and collapse by cutting payments and controlling entry and exits into the Palestinian areas. They would also try to stop money transfers through pressure on other governments and on the currency used in the Palestinian areas, the Israeli shekel. This warning was conveyed two weeks ago by the US, Europe, the UN secretary general and Russia, and it was repeated Tuesday by Israel.
In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri, said any effort to bring down a freely elected Hamas government would be "a rejection of the democratic process, which the Americans are calling for day and night."
Can we rightfully claim to recognize and respect the outcomes of free elections, if we then turn around and apply financial and policing pressures which leave *freely elected* extremists absolutely no breathing room?
On the other hand, would it be at all possible for us to support electoral obstructions "in the name of stability" like Mubarak's without laying the groundwork for yet another era of oppressive, rage-stoking rule by the "trustworthy" autocrats?