The talk about the upcoming cabinet has not finished through out the day in a way that gives you a headache.
Ganzoury met with a group of alleged revolutionary youth from Tahrir whom nobody heard about before. Mustafa El Nagar said that he refused to hold a position in Ganzoury’s cabinet and April 6th youth movement refused to hold talks with him as well.
Several personalities have declined the position of minister of information including Adel Hammouda and Magdy El Gald, I swear if one of them accepted the position , I would start camping in front of the cabinet myself.
The former/new PM announced later he is ready to have an advisory council made of ElBaradei and other potential presidential candidates. Rumors say that Faiza Abu El Naga is still in the cabinet.
A group of Tahrir protesters announced their own government and own council in a surreal way alone. Mohamed ElBaradei met Tantawy and Anan Saturday’s morning at SCAF’s HQ , some say for minutes while others say for hours , of course based on this photo showing ElBaradei with Tantawy having tea , I will assume it was longer than 10 minutes.
ElBaradei with the field marshal
Amr Moussa also met Tantawy at SCAF , some say that it was a short meeting based on the fact that he did not have a drink with the generals.
I know ElBaradei supporters are just like Lady Gaga’s little monsters !!! looooooool From few hours ago potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei announced that he is ready to give up presidency for heading a national salvation cabinet. After other few hours potential presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abu El Fatouh announced in a TV show that he and ElBaradei as well as Hamdeen are ready to give up presidency for the national salvation cabinet.
The question is how we are going to have the national salvation cabinet.
A group of political forces and movements called for a million man protest on Sunday in Tahrir square against the upcoming Ganzoury’s cabinet. I doubt there will be a big turnout as everybody is busy in the elections that will start on Monday.
And that’s folks it is just like the 1920s –1930s but unfortunately we do not have a strong party like El Wafd that units all Egyptians , we do not have the politicians like El Nahas or Makram Ebid with my all due respect to all those political figures we have now.
An immediate trial for those involved in killing the protesters regardless of its position
Forming a national salvation government with complete SCAF’s political and economic powers to rule for the rest of the transitional period
Rejecting Kamel El Ganzoury’s government
Starting a complete restructuring for the ministry of interior and disbanding the central security forces
Among the political movements calling for the protest : Revolution Youth coalition , April 6th Youth movement , El Tayar El Masry and the national association of change.
@12:01 PM Cairo Local time
Tantawy will have a press conference attended by the military correspondents only. Al Masryeen Al Ahrar party and its founder Naguib Sawiris are among the parties invited to Tantawy’s meeting.Potential Presidential candidate Abu El Fatouh has announced that he is boycotting the meeting with Tantawy.
Abu El Fatouh said on his twitter account :
I apologize for the meeting held by SCAF on Sunday.
Al Masry Al Youm and Al Arabiya began to publish quotes from Tantawy , we do not know if this is from the press conference or not.
Tantawy Says : We will not let anyone or any party to press the armed forces.
Egyptian TV :
Tantawy says : Elections are on time
@12:41 PM Cairo local time
And Tantawy says that the Ganzoury’s cabinet is temporary and will have full powers as well full support.He also added that the ministry of interior will secure the elections and the armed forces will support it. He also revealed that he met ElBaradei and Moussa by their own request.
In other words the military want El Ganzoury for now. Of course El Ganzoury can fail in finding ministers in this week and the
You can follow Al Masry Al Youm live broadcast from Tahrir square especially after 4 PM to see the square.
News that Hamdeen Sabhi is going to boycott the meeting with Tantawy. Of course I do not need to guess that El Wafd and El Tagammu parties are going to attend the meeting.
@1:04 PM Cairo Local time
Interestingly enough we knew from reliable sources that one of the current Ganzoury’s assistant is none other than
Also the Muslim brotherhood group is ready for a fight with SCAF over the right of the parliament to form the cabinet.
Mahmoud Ghozlan , the MB spokesperson told Al Masry Al Youm that the upcoming parliament should form the cabinet because it will represent the people.
Yesterday Major General Mamdouh Shahin said on TV that the parliament will not form the government. Honestly the secular powers in Egypt plus some liberal groups will be relieved to know that considering how much they are scared from the MB.
The MB is expected to have a majority and according to the currently constitutional declaration the parliament does not have the right to form the cabinet.
@1:13 PM Cairo Local time
This is from Reuters :
Egypt's military ruler warns of "extremely grave" consequences if no end found for crisis
@7 : 24 PM Cairo local time
Well it was raining heavily in Cairo , I do not know how it is affecting Tahrir square , already bunch of thousands showed up for the million man protest at Tahrir square.
News about meetings between potential presidential candidates from one side and SCAF with political figures and prominent personalities from another side to reach for an agreement for that so called advisory council.
The protesters in Tahrir square want tents against rain.
Rainy weathers and elections tomorrow , it is a busy day for a busy week in a busy critical period.
Google Egypt’s doodle
And the voting process have started in 9 governorates in Egypt.
Google doodles vote in Egypt
Huge turnout in Cairo despite the cold weather , huge and early turnout as people started to stand in long queues even before the polling stations would open its doors and the judges did not reach the stations. The queues are overwhelming in Cairo. Hundreds standing in front of polling stations waiting for their return in what could be the highest turnout for elections in the history of Egypt. “Hopefully insh Allah”
Here are photos from Cairo and outside it.
It is 9:32 AM now and most complains or violations are the delay of the judges to come to the polling stations , some polling stations have not opened its doors yet and some candidates are still campaigning especially the Freedom and Justice part that is distributing flyers outside the polling stations. The Muslim brotherhood has fired back quickly on twitter saying that the flyers being distributed are lists of the candidates only and that this is not illegal.
According to the law campaigning is stopped before the elections by 48 hours as far as I know.
Here is a photo from Tahrir square at 9 AM CLT by Omnia Khalil
23,000 observers are following the elections out of 25,000
@10:07 AM CLT
This time there are blue finger and violet finger not a pink finger.
This turnout with all the reported violations so far shows you the gap between the Egyptian twitter world and the Egyptians.
Amr Moussa is standing in a long queue to vote in Nasr City Consistency by Mohamed Ibrahim aka Za3eiry
Amr Moussa in New Cairo
Up till now no violent clashes have been reported.
By the way the day is not over despite it is promising start.
@11:36 AM CLT
Egyptians wait for their turn to vote
News that thugs are terrifying women voters in Al Zawya Al Hamara.
@11:48 AM CLT
According to Al Hayat news 74 polling stations in Kafr El Sheikh have not opened its doors yet because the judges are not there yet !!
People are waiting for hours now in queues in front of polling stations so far to vote.
The candidates are still distributing promotional flyers at the polling stations in different areas especially the Muslim brotherhood and their affiliated party Freedom party.
Here is one of the MB's flyers by dear friend Omnia Douski
The high commission for elections decided to extend the voting process till after 7 PM in the polling stations opened late. Also if the ballot papers are not stamps then they should be signed by the judges in the committees. The queues are extremely long up till now. There are polling stations facing terrible mainly from the delay of the judges , logistic problems concerning the ballot papers.
The street vendors as well as cafe chains found a golden mine in the long queues in front of polling stations. Wael Abbas reported that street vendors are selling food and tea to the people standing in the queues waiting to cast their votes.
Cilantro Cafe in Zamalek is taking orders from voters as well waiting in a long queue.
Al Nour Salafist party is reportedly having a tent outside one of the polling station where they prepare tea fro the voters !!
The complaints from F&J campaigning activity outside the polling stations are wide spread whether in Cairo or outside it yet according to friends in Mokktam and in Zamalek in Cairo , they are not the sole party that is distributing flyers outside the polling station.
Here is a flyer for Al Wafd's Nihal Ahady from Talaat Harb polling station
Speaking about old ladies , this lady from Damietta.
In Damietta
and old men as well.
Helping the elderly
Of course the army has to enhance their image after what happened in Tahrir square on November 20 ,2011 , remember the the army soldier that pulled a girl’s hair.
Nevertheless many people reported that the army soldiers and policemen treated them nice in most polling stations. The military police and police solider had to disperse a protest of voters using electric rods in Manshiat Nasr. There was a small tension in Assuit but it turned out to be caused by a rejected candidate
According to estimations today about 17 million Egyptians have voted today in 9 governorates. I believe those millions supported the revolution and enforced it by the ballot boxes , they want to get rid from military rule in their own way through democratic transition regardless of what you think about their way. I believe this turnout was a surprise to everybody including SCAF themselves. The bad organization is a an evidence of this lack of expectation
There were violations mostly related to the bad organization so.
@6:15 PM CLT
Voting is extended to 9 PM , now people are having concerns about the ballot boxes that will spend the night in the polling stations.
The results of the single seats will be announced by the end of the first stage while the lists seats will be announced by the end of the elections. Of course the results of the first stage will determine a lot of things.
There is no doubt that the Muslim brotherhood’s F&J will win a lot of vote because simply they are more known to the people than other parties aside of course the use of religion. The elections for sure showed the rivalry between F&J , Nour party and Wasat party as well other parties.
Now regarding violations let it be clear here everybody has violated the law by a way or another but as the Muslim brotherhood as the most spread , most organized and most under the eye party now their violations were much more clearer.
Here is a video showing Sobhi Saleh , the famous and outspoken MB member in Alexandria being kicked from a women’s polling station by the none other than the voters , our women from Alexandria.
The Muslim brotherhood accused Amr Hamzawy of trying to bribe the voters and he denied accusing them by violations by return. Here is a video showing a lady allegedly kicked out a lady from the polling station. That lady was accused by the judge of bribing the protesters.
Heliopolis : Violations by Amr Hamzawy’s alleged volunteer
Now Hamzawy issued a statement about violations in the Heliopolis consistency.
The Wasat party accused the F&J party of leaking the the ballot papers in one of the polling stations in Cairo , they even filed a report about the MB’s party. The Wasat party is not innocent itself , here is a kiosk they installed in front of the polling station in Damietta promoting for Wasat party. “Photo by Mohamed Mazhar”
Al Wasat Kiosk
Essam Sultan is the candidate of Damietta as you can see.
It is not only the Wasat party that violated the campaigning rules as far as I see , Al Masryeen Ahrar violated it too. Here is a photo for a simple gift they distributed at Damietta , at one of the polling stations “Sheikh Dargham” by Mohamed Mansour.
Al Masryeen Al Ahrar's gifts
I found this photo online showing volunteers from Egyptian Bloc distributing flyers at the polling station.
Egyptian bloc flyers
I think we should know now the limits of parliamentary campaigning for real.
Here is an interesting photo from Heliopolis this morning at women’s polling station by Heba Abou El Eid
Waiting to vote in Nasr City
Here is another video showing the queues at Nasr City.
Cairo : At Nasr City elections 2011
You can see in video members of F&J with laptops and lists , these guys help the voters to find their committees as part of their services today. This photo from Gamal Abdel Nasser School at New Cairo by Dr. Ehab Mesallum
Freedom and justice's free service : Know your polling station
SCAF General Mohamed EL Assar says that this is the first democratic elections from 60 years , those 60 years of course are the military rule in Egypt.
I do not know why women and men are separated now , women got their own polling stations and men got theirs !!
@8:38 CLT PM
Here is a video from Port Said from Al Masry AlYoum
Port Said : Al Masry Al Youm’s video report
According to early estimations from the internet and TV shows :
55% voted in Damietta.
11% voted in Red Sea
70 % voted in Asuit
28% of violations were in Cairo
Damietta did not record any single theft or law violation according to the head of security directorate. It is the first time in Damietta since 1973 war.
Ambassador Patterson praised the Egyptian elections urging Egyptians to vote.
I think there are members of Congress currently in Cairo who visited polling stations today.
@10:03 PM CLT
Cairo governor will vote tomorrow because he could not vote today.
And Ahmed Shafik voted today and praised El Ganzoury
The Return of Shafik
Now as everybody is picking on the Muslim brotherhood and their Freedom and Justice party for the violations they committed at the polling stations and ignoring another parties which actually unfair for me.
Yesterday early today Ahram portal published an extremely dangerous violation committed by an official authority. The Egyptian hotel association issued an official notification to its employees and workers as well those who work in tourism industry to vote for the Egyptian bloc candidates in the elections in Fayoum , Red Sea, Luxor and Port Said because these candidates are supportive to the sector.
The names of the candidates
The statement issued from the Egyptian hotel association
I do understand why the Egyptian hotel association issued this statement , the fear from Islamists especially the Salafists who got some presence in Luxor as well as Red Sea surprisingly. The hoteliers are supporting Sameh Makarm Ebeid in Red Sea to stop the Salafists and the Nour party. Still this is a dangerous action from a governmental authority.
Anyhow here are the voters in Red Sea from RNN
Inside the polling station by RNN
I know some called liberal powers “actually secular can’t stomach Islamists” will support this despite it is a clear violation to the law !! I am ready to have laws that protect tourism than this violations to the elections law and clear bias.
Amazingly the woman who survived Mubarak’s regime , a revolution and three cabinets so far Faiza Abu El Naga casted her vote in Zamalek and not in Port Said where she ran for the parliament last year !!
Speaking about ministers or former ministers here is Gouda Abdel Khalek of Social solidarity
Former Essam Sharaf has tweeted the following today :
And the popular committees , Muslim brotherhood and Salafists protected the polling stations all night long. According to the FJ Party aka MB party not less than 40,000 volunteers protected the polling stations across the country in 9 governorates last night.
Today voting continues and the military police is so nice with elderly .This photo is by dear friend Nany Atef from Heliopolis The violations continue and the candidates and parties are distributing flyers outside the polling stations , again dear Nany took this photo from Heliopolis , at Almaza school polling station to be specific.
Here is a photo from Luxor by Nermine Nagdy for Mandara Online showing the women’s queue in the famous Upper Egyptian city.
Speaking about Luxor here is a copy for a fax sent from the Egyptian hotel association to hotels managers to urge their employees in tourism sector to vote for the Egyptian bloc because its parties support tourism unlike Islamist parties.
I think I raised this topic yesterday about how the Egyptian hotel association urged those working in tourism sector to vote for the Egyptian bloc in a clear violation to the law.
Interestingly enough the Coffee shop company published a half page colored ad in Ahram Daily where it announces its endorsement to the Egyptian bloc. Provokingly enough they say that they claimed the “Couch party” aka the silent majority is supporting the Egyptian bloc as well.
The Egyptian Bloc demands SCAF and High commission of elections to do their job and stop violations , as if the Egyptian bloc did not commit any violation yesterday.
Amr Hamzawy defended himself against the accusations of FJ Party that one of his volunteers tried to bribe the voters at one of the polling stations in Heliopolis claiming it was a lie and that video about the incident was fabricated.
Tomorrow insh Allah the results of the individual seats in the first stage will be announced.
According to estimations 70% of the voters in the 9 governorates went to the polling stations yesterday.
The Christian participation is high in this elections thanks to the fear of the radical Islamist control in Egypt.
@11:36 AM CLT
The ministry of interior says that 22 polling stations in Cairo and Fayoum as well 3 polling stations in Kafr El Sheikh have not opened their doors to voters.
Potential presidential candidate Mohamed Salim El Awa went to the polling stations today in Alexandria.
Here is Gamila Ismail after casting her vote in Zamalek by RNN
@11:50 AM CLT
Voting is resumed in 16 polling stations in Cairo and Fayoum. There is a poor turnout for voters in Luxor while high turnout in Esna in Luxor governorate.
General Sami Anan is having a tour in polling stations in Nasr City and Heliopolis.
And so the voting in the first stage of the first parliamentary elections after the fall of the Mubarak regime ended at 7 PM and now it is counting time.
Here are photos from the vote counting commissions
This is from Nasr City constituency in Cairo “By Mustafa Al Naggar”
This is from the 4th constituency in Cairo “RNN”
From Port Said RNN.
Of course we should not except it will be easy because now Tahrir is currently on fire at the same time in we have the vote counting !! Thugs are the Tahrir square sit in and we got now 59 injured in half an hour only besides a missing activist NadimX. The thugs were attacking the protesters with rocks , Molotov and birdshots as well gunshots. The thugs are using this strange device to fire the birdshots and gunshots. “This photo by Ahmed Essam El Den”
Another photo showing the empty gunshot by Ahmed Anwar
It all started with a fight with the street vendors whom some suspect to be informants.
NadimX is an activist , I think his name is Abdel Rahman Amin and he is member of No for military trials campaign. His friends saw him being taken in some Black KIA car. I hope that he is fine and he returns back soon safe. Here is Abdel Rahman or Nadim’s photo by Lilian Wagdy in Tweet Nadwa from couple of months ago !!
I am praying that no one dies today.
God damn it.
Well now we are all following the votes counting process alive in several TV channels as well online through twitter and Facebook.
The votes counting process got a hash tag on twitter now and it is #Farz Here are the latest info I got :
The Egyptian bloc is advancing in Heliopolis constituency
Dr. Mustafa El Naggar is also advancing in Nasr City Constituency
Cairo Second constituency : FJ party list then Egyptian bloc then Al Wasat list then El Adl
Unfortunately Amr Hamzawy is also advancing in Heliopolis constituency
In Asuit : The Freedom & Justice party list then El Nour party list then Egyptian bloc then Al Wasat list.
In Port Said : FJ Party list then Nour party list then Al Wafd list then Egyptian bloc then El Wasat
It seems that there could be a rerun between Akram El Shaer of FJ party and George Ishaak of Egyptian bloc
In Alexandria the FJ party and Nour party lists are advancing , there will be a rerun from
In 9 governorates the FJ party and Nour party lists are advancing
The injured in Tahrir square have reached to 88 !!
Many Egyptians are following the results up till now
The results have not been announced but the Freedom and Justice party is wining unsurprisingly. Nobody expected other than that this result so I do not know why people are freaking out online in social networks ,may be because they discovered now that Egypt at least those 9 governorates are not on twitter and on Facebook , may be because they discovered now that those 9 governorates are on the Tahrir compass.
This is something expected for months based on the fact that the Muslim brotherhood and the Salafists were working for months in the streets and the governorates so please stop whining and freaking out when you did nothing to reach out for the people.
The Egyptian people chose something and we have to respect those choice.
Already this parliament can have a short life.
Now I included below the results so far according to the leaks , this data will be updated accordingly.
In Cairo so far :
In East Cairo constituency the rivalry is between Mustafa Bakry and the Salafist candidate , Nasser Amin has lost unfortunately. Here is video showing the counting process from Helwan.
Helwan : Counting process
In Kasr El Nil constituency the rivalry is between Gamila Ismail and Mohamed Abu Hamed of Egyptian bloc on single seat. Update : News that she won.
In Nasr city single Seat constituency the rivalry is between Mustafa El Naggar of El Adl and Mohamed Morsi of Salafists.
In Heliopolis single seat constituency the rivalry is between Amr Hamzawy and the FJ’s candidate yet there could be developments that can change the results upside down and we can have re-rurn.
In Alexandria so far :
The Muslim brotherhood’ list and the Nour party list are competing in Alexandria fiercely.
1st Constituency in Alexandria : Famous Salafist preacher and spokesperson of famous Salafist Da’oa Abdel Moneim El Shahat is advancing. Here is running for the single seat.
2nd constituency in Alexandria : There could be a rerun between Tarek Talaat Mustafa “Independent” and the Judge El Khodairy “ FJ Party” on the single seat
3st constituency in Alexandria : Waiting for the results.
The revolution continues coalition had no really publicity in the real life comparing for the Egyptian bloc.
In Port Said so far
There will be a rerun on the single seat between Akram El Shaar of FJ party and George Ishaak of Egyptian Bloc
In Red Sea so far
3 Individual members are competing so far on the single seat. FJ party list is advancing over the the Egyptian bloc.
In Luxor so far
Al Gama’a Al Islamiya Vs. Freedom and Justice on single seat. The Egyptian bloc list is advancing over the FJ party list.
In Asuit so far
The FJ Party Vs. Egyptian Bloc
In Damietta so far :
The final results will be announced in few minutes , it is the first governorate to announce its results at 2:44 PM
In Kafr El Sheikh so far
In El Fayoum so far
The final results will be announced tomorrow Thursday at night.
This song made many people cry including me , oh you square.
Cairokee ft Aida El Ayouby : Ya El Medan
Cairokee is one of the most promising bands in Egypt and of course the amazing Aida El Ayouby’s voice can’t be described easily.
I am not a Tahrir cultist and I believe that it is a means and not an end to our goal because I want the Tahrir square to keep its position in our heart and not to be hated or ridiculed by our children and grandchildren as we are ridiculing the sacrifices of grandparents in wars.
I am not a Tahrir cultist because I know that this is the revolution of the Egyptian people from North to South , from East to West. I believe one of the biggest stumbles and problems we faced is how the mainstream media called the “Tahrir revolution” as if it is the uprising of the Cairo and Tahrir only , just like the other provoking term I hate “The revolution youth”
Nevertheless this song will make anyone from those who lived the 18 days or the Mohamed Mahmoud days cry in to tears.
This post was written in early morning , currently Google translator has fixed its problem but I think it should be posted for the sake of effort.
I want to translate online a phrase that includes the word “Ganzouri” from English to Arabic , I will recommend that you search for an online translation service than Google translate.
Yes search for another translation than Google translate because “Ganzouri” is translated in to Arabic as “The ex-prime minister” !!
A screencap for google translate
Kamel El Ganzouri is our newest appointed prime minister , the third this year.
Here is a screencap for two words I tried in the morning “Tantawy and Ganzouri” and what I found
I found this through a tip from a friend.I think someone recommended better translation
Interesting !!
And here is the new cabinet of Kamel Ganzoury according to Zeinobia’s wild guesses:
12 ministers from the old Essam Sharaf’s cabinet including 2 from pre-revolution era. Without too much guess the Iron lady Faiza Abu El Naga of international cooperation and Hassan Younes of electricity.
8 –10 ministers from the old Essam Sharaf’s cabinet. My guesses they will be minister of health Amr Helmi ,minister of of foreign affairs Kamel Amr , minister of tourism Mounir Fakhary Abdel Nour
3 of the new ministers will be youth and 2 will be women !!
Judge Adel Abdel Hamid is nominated to be minister of justice , there was a bad rumor that infamous judge Adel Abdel Salem Gomaa was chosen as minister of justice and you can imagine the fury of Egyptian twitter world. He is an old man , over 70 years old man. He was the head of the appeal court.
Shaker Abdel Hamid is nominated to be minister of culture , Abdel Hamid used to be the head the secretary general of the supreme council of culture. I do not know much about him.
Hussein Abdel Moneim El Shabakshy is nominated to be the minister of investment , El Shabaksy is an expert in industrial investments and reclamation of western desert.
Rumors that retired police general Mohamed Ibrahim is nominated to be the minister of interior. He was the former head of Alexandria’s security directorate as well the head of Egyptian Interpol. He was recommended by one of the Police officers coalitions
A civilian will be appointed as the minister of civil aviation."
The old ministry of food supply will be back as well the ministry of youth and sports.
There will be a new ministry of revolution’s injured and martyrs’ families !!!!
There are rumors that Ganz will keep the ministry of finance for himself !!
Hussein Tantawy as minister of defense.
The new cabinet will be sworn in next Saturday insh Allah
Now despite I am glad that the minister of education was an actual teacher one and that the minister of civil aviation is once again a civilian , I do not think that the old school of Ganzoury will help us these days “as if it helped us in the past”
This cabinet is the most challenge thing in Ganzoury’s life , I believe humans have always second and this change is a big test for him because time is against him as well the revolutionaries who are actually against SCAF’s control. Now regarding the “byGanz” thing in title , Ahmed Ganzoury is the most flamboyant party planner in Egypt better known as Ganz and his events are well known to be byGanz, I mentioned him before in posts about the two Egypts we had and still have in Egypt. Unlike popular myth Ahmed Ganzoury is not related to our current prime minister from near or far and the only thing they shared is the last name Ganzoury
Of course it was matter of hours when we found SCAF’s legal guru General Mamdouh Shahin firing back at Morsi and reminded him that the FJ party will not have the honor and form the government after the parliamentary elections.
The wise members of MB and FJ party next day denied that they are going to form any government because simply it is too early to speak about governments when the first stage results have not been announced yet. It was wise thing to say because the last thing the MB wants is to appear arrogant and to start the clash earlier with SCAF.
The point where SCAF and MB’s honeymoon will be over the parliament , the cabinet and the the powers of the parliament in my point of view . Also SCAF will use it to scare the people from any democratic transition power and this is what I began to see.
Now realistically speaking everybody must chill down because currently our political system is the presidential one according to the constitutional declaration issued n March 2011 till we have a new constitution. The constitution of course is another battle now.
I believe now some liberal or rather secular figures will support the presidential system or the semi presidential system so the Islamists will not control the government and country to the endless debate of Islamophobia. Already some of them wish that these elections are cancelled.
I believe the MB is not ready to form the government now and it wants that then it will be a direct fast political suicide because one thing for sure , Mubarak has left pyramids of problems in all sectors in Egypt especially the economic sector when it comes to the standard of living.
I do feel threatened by the ultra-conservative Islamists’s views especially like the Salafists yet I will not trade democracy and reject it because first time elections which we all knew its results from the beginning. We all knew that the the Muslim brotherhood will win in the elections because they are the most organized and spread political powers in the country. Since the Mubarak’s fall and the Islamists are working for this moment , I can’t blame them nor blame the people that did not know anyone political power in the street except the Muslim brotherhood.
Ok and here are the semi-final list of ByGanz’s new cabinet , it is not a speculation anymore as supposedly these ministers will swear in tomorrow in front of Tantawy. Of course my expectations are true after all.
Again here is the list of the new cabinet ByGanz which is supposedly a national salvation government !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
The ministers from Mubarak’s cabinets :
Hussein Tantawy as minister of defense. “Of course”
Faiza Abu El Naga as minister of international cooperation. “iron lady indeed”
Hassan Younes as minister of electricity. “Did not I tell you !?”
The ministers from Sharaf’s cabinet :
Mohamed Kamel Amr as minister of foreign affairs
Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour as minister of tourism
Osama Heikal as minister of information.
Abdullah Gharab as minister of oil
Mohamed Salem as minister of telecommunication. “He was an army major general if you remember and was among Nazif’ men as well”
Goda Abdel Khalek as minister of social solidarity as well food supply. As a reminder Abdel Khalek is regarded as a leftist
Hisham Kandeel as minister of irrigation and water sources.
Mahmoud Eissa as minister of industry.
Saleh Youssef as minister of agriculture.
Mohamed Abdel El Fadil as minister of Awkaf.
The new ministers byGanz :
Momtaz El Said as minister of finance. Mr. El Said was the undersecretary of the ministry of finance.
Adel Abdel Hamid as minister of justice. He used to head the appeal court.
Gamal Al Araby as minister of education. He is the first teacher to head the ministry from 25 years.
Wael El Degwi as minister of housing . El Degwi was the dean of faculty of engineering, Cairo university through elections. “He got in this election 75% of the votes”
Abdel Messiah Samaan Abdel Messiah as minister of environmental affairs. He is a professor environmental awareness at Ain Shams university.
Siyad El Bastawisi as minister of manpower and immigration
Shaker Abdel Hamid Soliman as minister of culture
Hussein Khaled as minister of higher education
Adel Abdel Latif as minister of health
Mohamed Ibrahim as minister of antiquities
Nagwa Hassan Ahmed as minister of insurance and pensions
We do not know who is the next minister of interior as it seems all the candidates and names proposed got bloody history, Mansour Eissawy was a catch after all !!
Over 25 ministers , why !? why 30 ministers for a transition period , for an interim cabinet !? Even if we are speaking about handing over power in June 2012 !? I do not see why we need 32 ministers , oh yes Ganz is going to have 32 ministers !!!!
Now the duo of Abu El Naga and Abdel Nour who supported El Salmi’s document as still in their places. I have got nothing though against Abdel Nour but the iron lady should be replaced by someone else. The Wafd party has still got two ministers.
Now I have a question is the ministry of environmental affairs now booked for Christians ?? Do not get me wrong but I notice that this is the 4th Christian minister to head the ministry of environmental affairs after Nadia Makram Ebeid and Maged George in the past 10 years !?
There are other Christians in Egypt who can serve as ministers in other ministries for God sake. Anyhow personally I consider this ministry , the ministry of environmental affairs as a critical one and I hope that Abdel Messiah tries to do his best.
The ministry of antiquities is back.
I do not think we need a ministry of culture or a ministry of information.
Moataz Abdel Fatah turned down the ministry of youth and youth. Our golden mermaid Rania Elwani denied the news that she was offered the ministry of youth and sports. Hady Khashba, the former Ahly footballer revealed that he was being nominated for the position. Khashba was among the few footballers that joined the protesters at Tahrir square during the 18 days yet he is not politically active like for instance like Nader El Siyad who is running for the parliament on Al Wasat party’s list.
Now interestingly enough there are army sources saying that Ganz will have president’s powers except what is related to the army and war. The sources added in the media today there will be amendments to the articles related to the cabinet and SCAF’s powers especially article no.57 in the constitutional declaration issued in March 2011.
We will know the rest of the ministers tomorrow , Ganz is still searching for ministers of interior , of youth and sports , of revolution’s injured and martyrs’ families’ care as it seems.
Yes the majority Egyptian people ,the honorable members of the Kanaba party aka the couch party aka the silent majority are with the revolution and support it , they want to end the 60 years of military but in a peaceful way.
And today the high elections commission has announced the first stage of parliamentary elections’ results at 8 PM on Friday in a short press conference. Actually the HEC told the journalists that they will get the papers with detailed breakdown and publish it. Now here is in English the results of the individual seats in details of the first stage of the Egyptian parliamentary elections , the people’s assembly elections by Hany Rasmy and Evan Hill. Here is also a version of the individual seats in Arabic from Ahram Arabic portal. Up till now we do not understand any thing when it comes to the list , we do not understand if we should wait for the final lists seats results or what. Anyhow Mostafa El Hoshy on twitter made a nice diagram about the lists votes results announced past week.
Percent of party/list votes by Mostafa El Hoshy
According to the HCE the voting percentage in the first stage of parliamentary elections 2011/2012 is 62% which is the highest percentage in the history of parliamentary elections in Egypt. “According to the chairman of the HCE it is the highest percentage since the pharaohs !!”
Now Al Masry Al Youm has published a report claiming that the 62% was wrong and that the voting percentage was less than that adding it could be about 48%. Already it seems that there is a confusion in numbers after all those days which I do not get it. Thank Goodness it was not the whole country !! For reminder here are the list of governorates in this stage : Cairo , Alexandria, Port Said , Asuit , Red Said , Kafr El Sheikhm , Damietta , Luxor and Fayoum. Back to the HCE numbers the total number of voters in the 9 governorates are 13,614,525. Only 8,449,115 voters have casted their votes last week. The nullified votes in the 9 governorates are 517,967 votes from 8,449,115 votes. The correct votes are 7,931,148 votes. The number of general polling stations are 28 while the subsidiary polling stations are 9837 in the 9 governorates. 10,148 judges have supervised this stage. There are run offs between the MB and Salafists which is interesting and there are run offs between religious trend and liberal treat as well which is more polarizing. Mostafa El Hoshy did another diagram about the secular liberal list and Islamists list in the govvernorates , it is amazing
Now you must know the Salafists rising power is a threat to the Muslim brotherhood because now the conservative vote unlike what you think is spilt between the MB and the Salafists who are more conservative. If it were not the Salafists , the MB would have swept this stage and these elections to be honest.There will be a 30 run offs between the MB’s FJ party and the Salafists in this round. Actually knowing how the MB think , I believe there can be an alliance between the MB and liberal more than the MB and Salafists because the MB got old connections with the outside world especially the States and EU unlike the new comers aka Salafists. When we read the numbers we find that the liberal powers had a good chance but unfortunately they spilt votes among themselves, and the best example on this is how Nihal Ahady spoiled the opportunity of Gamila Ismail as she got 11,000 votes our revolutionary wonderful lady needed to put an end for the Kasr Al Nil constituency race so easily. I hope in the reruns as well in the upcoming stages we avoid this. Of course there are no ladies in the re-runs. Strangely the NDP orphans did not win as expected in this stage including the big shots of the NDP like for instance Omar Haridy and this shows that we overestimated their powers. Of course this is not the end , this is just the beginning.
The reform and development party got 185,238 votes
The Egyptian National party got 153,429 votes
The freedom party got 136,784 votes
The El Adl party got 76 ,769 votes.
The conservatives got 76, 743 votes
I am shocked and surprised that the Wafd party got more than the Wasat party and El Ad party , I am shocked and surprised. Is it the campaigning tactics ? After all the Wafd party got these annoying ads day and night especially on the Al Hayat TV network !? I am quite shocked and surprised.
Again we want a breakdown , a real one for the lists in the stages !!
I will update this post and hopefully people will help us to know which parties are felol and which are not.
As we are busy in the elections race and with GanZ’s upcoming government we suddenly find this video surfacing online.
The moment the news sector broadcasted the step down speech of Omar Soliman on February 11,2011
This video was filmed in the Egyptian TV and Radio union building aka Maspero on February 11,2011 shortly before 6 PM where Major General Ismail Etman ,member of SCAF and head of the morale and public relations department in the armed forces came and presented by hand the video tape of Omar Soliman’s historical announcement that Mubarak was going to step down to the control room in the news sector.
Omar Soliman recorded the announcement of Mubarak’s stepping down at the SCAF HQ.
The first question I asked myself when I saw this short clip : Who filmed this high quality footage ? Is it the News sector !? Second question : Who leaked this video like that ? Third question : Why is this video leaked now ?
Another important question is why El Manawy had that look on his face ? It was as if he was going to throw up !? Also why that lady was crying in the control room like that !? To be honest me and my mom had cried when we heard the step down speech by Omar Soliman from happiness.
Historically this video is extremely important and most probably our grandchildren will watch it just like the newsreel showing the departure of King Farouk from Alexandria.
Now Major General Ismail Etman denies to have any kind of responsibility of leaking this video online from near or far despite he revealed that the one who filmed this footage was an officer from the army , from the Morale department he heads.
Logically I understand why Etman had to deliver this video tape by himself in this way and I understand why an army officer had to film that important moment but I do not understand fully on why this video was leaked or how it was leaked. My only interpretation is that it is another part of the PR plan SCAF launched to clean its damaged image after Mohamed Mahmoud battle.
Despite all what I think about Emad Adeeb , the famous TV host and media mogul , I can’t ignore what he said yesterday on CBC channel when said that the problem in Egypt that the everyone from the revolutionary protesters to Muslim brotherhood to the army think that it is only them that made the revolution succeed describing what happened to be half revolution /half coup. It is worth to mention that the big Adeeb brought up the safe exist again in his show.
The complete interview of Emad Adeeb with Lamis El Hadidy
Ironically people wondered online on who shall step down after the big Adeeb’s appearance !? Adeeb’s last appearance on TV was on Dream TV I think days before January 25th where he criticized the parliamentary elections in 2010 and spoke about the safe exist for Mubarak.
Syrian blogger and activist Razan Ghazzawi has been arrested today at the Syrian Jordanian borders while she was on on her way to attend a conference in Amman after Freedoms in the Arab world.
Razan has been from the active Syrian activists and advocate for freedoms for long time.Razan has been active and outspoken when it comes to injustice , she stood with Hezbollah during the 2006 war. She stood with Syrian Islamist bloggers despite all the complete ideological difference between them and her.
She is from the few Syrian bloggers that used to blog with her real name. She is a U.S born yet she is an Arab leftist nationalist
According Global Voice advocacy the Facebook account of Razan has been disabled yet her email account and twitter account are still safe.
Razan Ghazzawi is from the early generation of bloggers in Syria ,I pray to God that she will be fine insh Allah.
There is currently a hashtag for Razan “#FreeRazan”. Here is Razan’s twitter account.
And here another a Facebook page dedicated to her : Freedom to blogger Razan Ghazzawi
I think Razan Ghazzawi is the second female Syrian blogger to be arrested after Tal Malhoi.
I remember once Razan once tweeted during the the revolution in Egypt describing how she and her family were glued in front of the TV every afternoon till late night watching Tahrir square in those 18 days and how she cried when Mubarak was ousted.
Razan is another Syrian , among thousands of Syrians detained for no reason except they want freedom and democracy.
Now here is a video of Hashtag show on 25TV in June 2008 ago where Razan Ghazzawi commented about the Gay girl in Damascus hoax starting from 5:45 minutes, I think this is from the few times Razan spoke to Egyptian media.
I am tired of asking the Islamists whether Muslim brotherhood and Salafists “especially Salafists” about their views regarding the Bikini and liquor.
The bikini while we are enchained to many problems
I am tired of asking the Islamists whether Muslim brotherhood and Salafists about their views regarding arts like cinema, opera, ballet and music.
I am tired of asking the Islamists whether Muslim brotherhood and Salafists about their views about women and Christians.
I am tired because we got the same answers every time and yet this did not affect the polls in the first degree.
I hope our journalists and TV hosts ask new questions like for instance :
What is their view about Agrium factory complex in Damietta and its effects on the environment ? How will they solve the environmental problems in Egypt without harming the foreign investments in Egypt ?
What is their view about privatized companies in Egypt ?
How are they going to fix the deadly economic mistakes of the former regime ?
How are they going to solve the unemployment problem ?
How are they going to save the wheat problem in Egypt ?
How are they going to solve the water problem with Ethiopia ?
What are their plans about the free zone in Port Said and East Port Said as well ?
What are their plans about the reclamation of Sinai and West Desert to solve the increasing population problem in Egypt ?
What are their plans regarding the Egyptian peaceful nuclear program ?
What is their plan for the new budget in year 2012/2013 ?
What is their plan to solve the agricultural sector in Egypt ?
What is their plan to solve the Egyptian cotton and its industry in Egypt ?
What are their plans for subsidies goods and medicine !?
What is their plan for health insurance system ?
Some times I feel that even the Non Islamists powers in Egypt from liberals can’t answer these questions as well and that’s what everybody ignores them.
I fear no one wants to ask these questions only focusing on the Bikini question because they do not understand its importance.Most of the Egyptian people do not wear Bikini and they do not watch Ballet yet most of the Egyptian people suffer from unemployment , from terrible economic conditions , from pollution and from health problems. I am not worried from Islamist take over because I know if they fail in solving these problems we can have a real hunger strike heavens forbid because guess what people are not afraid of standing for their rights.
I hope some TV host read this post and ask its next parliamentary candidate or MP these questions and let’s say what they are going to say.
The fantastic cartoon of Mostafa Hussein summarizes I want to say. “Despite the views of Hussein , he is still one of the most important cartoonists for real in Egypt and Arab world”
Today there have been 104 candidates competing on 52 seats in 27 constituencies in 9 governorates : Cairo , Alexandria, Asuit, Luxor, Kafr El Sheikh, Port Said , Red sea , Damietta and Fayoum.
As a reminder there are 30 run offs between Muslim brotherhood and Salafists.
There has been a low turnout in the day compared by last week and this is due to three reasons from what I saw today :
Some people feared the long queues and decided to go tomorrow , of course they will be shocked to know there are long queues tomorrow.
Some people were disappointed when their candidates especially the liberal ones have failed and do not vote to the Muslim brother or the Salafists.
Some companies did not give its employees and workers
The violations are just the same and all parties violated the campaigning rules. SCAF promised to stop the violations in the upcoming stages.
The HEC has cancelled the results of the Cairo’s first constituency in El Sahl area and will hold new elections for this specific constituency on January 10th and 11th 2012 and their re-runs will be held insh Allah on January 17th and 18th.
6 polling stations were closed in Luxor today because of two separate incidents one in the city of Esna where two families had a big fight with big guns as usual and in the city of Luxor where the security forces had a fight with one of the famous gangsters there who went close to the polling station , I do not know if he went to vote or what !! You know even gangsters have a vote !!
The question if there is that low turnout which everybody recognizes , how we are going to count the votes and announce the winner if the winner needs 50%+1 of the vote !?
Manal Hassan , the wife of Alaa Abdel Fatah has given birth to a very beautiful young baby boy called Khaled from short awhile ago in Cairo.
Manal and Alaa decided to name their first baby boy after Khaled Said. I think baby Khaled looks like his granny Dr. Laila Soueif. Here are beautiful photos of baby Khaled by his beautiful aunt Mona :)
I am waiting to see that bundle of joy blogging , already he got a twitter account now Next Sunday Alaa Abdel Fatah will stand again in front of the high state security court to see if his 15 days of detention pending investigation will be renewed again or not.
Alaa Abdel Fatah has been imprisoned more than a month now after being accused with a list of charges in the Maspero clashes including attacking military personnel ,theft of military arms , inciting violence and murder.
Yesterday Alaa’s lawyers tried to appeal the high state security court’s detention order and presented some of Alaa’s evidence but the court refused the appeal. Alaa appeared in the court shaved and smiling.
Alaa smiling at the court "Twitter"
I hope that Alaa insh Allah will be released next Sunday and insh Allah he will attend Khaled’s baby shower after 7 days. “We hold the baby showers after 7 days of the baby’s birth in Egypt according to traditions and folklore”
May Allah bless Khaled Alaa and May Alaa reunite him with his father so soon insh Allah.
Strangely enough Mona Seif , Alaa’s sister and the founder of the No for military trials campaign was also born when her father famous human rights activist and lawyer Ahmed Seif Islam was behind the bars.
