Attackers wielding machetes, knives and axes created mayhem at scattered polling places around Egypt on Sunday, killing one man and wounding dozens of others. The violence was seen as a government effort to create chaos to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from making further gains in the second round of three-stage parliamentary elections.
Voters at some polling places praised the government for its organization, with independent judges supervising transparent ballot boxes. But the violence erupted around polling places that were considered strongholds for the Muslim Brotherhood, which did surprisingly well in the first round of elections, particularly in poorer neighborhoods in this Mediterranean city.
The man killed was identified as the driver for one candidate. The driver was stabbed to death by one of the attackers -- many of whom, election observers said, appeared to be high on drugs or drunk and who were brought into the areas on trucks by the security services.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the Independent Committee on Election Monitoring confirmed reports of widespread violence in the nine regions where the second stage of the election is taking place to choose 144 candidates for the 454-seat parliament.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed but has been tolerated in recent years, announced that 400 of its followers had been rounded up in 24 hours, and the Alexandria office said 42 had been wounded in clashes at polling places.
The governing National Democratic Party has long controlled parliament, which has served as a rubber stamp for the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak for 24 years. But following the first presidential elections allowing a choice this year, the ruling party also seemed to be giving a freer hand to candidates in elections for the parliament.
These elections are considered particularly significant because this parliament and the next are expected to play a significant role in rewriting the constitutional rules that will determine how the successor to the 77-year-old president is chosen.
The Muslim Brotherhood, whose members run as independents, won 34 seats out of the 164 that were up for election in the first round, doubling the number of seats its members held in all of the last parliament, elected in 2000.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS