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| Africa North |
| 2nd Round of elections for lower house in Egypt: Underway |
| 2011-12-15 |
| From the Arabist.net, the author of the predictions below is an anti American, anti Israel secularist reporter who has lived in and around Cairo since about 2000; he appears frequently on al Jazeera (english). Attempts by secular forces to coordinate their strategies and pick winners in certain districts will be tried in some places, even if coalitions such as Revolution Continues haev expressed unwillingness to deal with Egyptian Bloc candidates with ties to the old regime. I expect very limited success for this strategy because it was too late to take candidates off the ballot, and no one has the reach to marshall voters into casting their ballot more strategically. That being said, voters will take their own initiative. I suspect the Egyptian Bloc, being the big winner among the secular parties in the first round, will be the logical choice for tactical voting. Expect the FJP-Nour battle to intensify, particularly for IC seats the seats reserved for individuals rather than party list candidates. Nour the salafists lost most of those in the runoff last time, while the FJP the moslem brotherhood was taken off-guard by Nour's succcess in the first round. I wouldn't be surprised if we see tensions between FJP and Nour supporters, either. |
| Posted by:Lord Garth |