Cairo. Saturday, June 23. On a trip planned months ago, we arrived in Cairo several days before the elections. It was gratifying to watch. The entire country, I think, was proud that it finally had achieved FREE and DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS. Egyptians solved the problem of voter fraud that the Republican Party in Florida, for all its access to wealth and power, seems not to have the intelligence or will to figure out. They simply dipped the finger of the voter in ink before he or she cast her ballot. Hassan had the right to vote, but couldn't, as he hadn't registered. But disillusionment set in as the SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces, although I prefer to translate it as Supreme Council of Arrogant... something else) has assigned to itself the right to write a new constitution, curtail the powers of the in-coming president, and generally run the country. Yesterday, on the Muslim Sabbath, people gathered by the thousands in Tahrir Square, and are camped out, awaiting the results of the election, which have been delayed, as (conceivably) negotiations go on behind closed doors. The country seems very divided, and no matter who is declared the winner, there is sure to be dissatisfaction. Both candidates now are promising a unity government, and yesterday SCAF ran a statement all day long in Arabic on TV saying they would support whoever won (yeah, right!). It seems quite possible that if Shafiq wins, there will be tanks in the streets, and bloodshed. The military seem not to have taken the trial and conviction of Mubarak for killing demonstrators last year too seriously. (Just like his lapses into comas, which seem to come at times when the military conveniently needs a distraction of the popular attention.) The SCAF has already warned people not to be, in so many words, too uppity and take all the democracy talk too seriously. One wonders what the US (and its Zionist rulers) are saying behind the scenes. In public, Hilary Clinton talks the democracy talk, but it is hard to imagine that Washington and Jerusalem will be too thrilled if even a mild, soft-spoken Brotherhood (hardly the fire-breathing creature of Hasn al-Banna or the fantasy threat feared by Americans) wins. These days, the MB has wealthy leaders, who engage in charity work, but it still has a history of opposing Western colonialism, and opposes Zionism. Before the election, people were dissatisfied with the Muslim Brotherhood and its promise, among other things, to sell the Suez Canal to one of the Gulf states (they have since backed down and said they only planned to RENT it, but nonetheless, Egyptians, who tell stories of relatives sent to work on the Canal and ended up being buried under it, were duly outraged). Some said they would vote for Ahmed Shafiq (Mubarak's ex-PM) and if he didn't do what they liked, they knew how to have a revolution now. I don't know if they actually DID vote for Shafiq, but the results reported so far (52% for Mohammed Mursi, 48% for Shafiq) are pretty close, and at least this seems like a GENUINE election, not like the 90-plus for Sadat and Mubarak that always obtained before. Now that the military rulers are opposed to the MB and are trying to prevent even a relatively powerless Mursi from taking office, it would seem. Maybe they are afraid that he will indeed fulfill the threat implied by his spokesman to renew the trial and avenge the blood of martyrs. Egypt is truly in uncharted territory, and we await God's Will. Hajja Romi/Blue
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