Egyptian police stifle protests

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Police in Egypt have been deployed in large numbers to prevent a national strike by pro-democracy activists.

Police had orders to arrest anyone taking part, and a number of activists have been held in recent days.

Protests appear to have been small, but about 100 MPs, out of 454, walked out of parliament as part of the protest.

The organisers of Monday's action had urged people to wear black and called for protests including sit-ins at places of work or study.

The call to protest was circulated through SMS messages and social networking sites.


[Change] is desperately needed in Egypt after more than 30 years of one-person rule. Egypt deserves much better than that

Ayman Nour
Opposition leader

The campaigners are pressing the government to raise the national minimum wage and are calling for a new constitution to be drafted.

Activists were hoping it would build on a protest demanding economic and political reform they held for the first time last year.

Three people died in the protests in April 2008 and hundreds were arrested.

Egypt is run under a emergency law that has been in place since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

Brotherhood backing

The Muslim Brotherhood, believed to be the biggest opposition organisation in Egypt despite its being outlawed, has also backed the protest.

On Monday hundreds of riot police were stationed in city-centre squares and around universities to prevent demonstrators from gathering.

About 100 protesters gathered at the journalists' association headquarters in Cairo and chanted anti-government slogans.

Hundreds of students also demonstrated on university campuses in Cairo and the southern city of Assiut.

Ayman Nour , the leader of the opposition Ghad (Tomorrow) Party who has recently been released from jail, told the BBC Arabic Service that it was premature to judge the strike and that events were being organised throughout the day, across the country.

He said that change in Egypt was necessary to break the political stagnation in the country: "[Change] is desperately needed in Egypt after more than 30 years of one-person rule. Egypt deserves much better than that."

Damn it Egypt quit being a fucking dick, asshole!

[Charon]

The call to protest was circulated through SMS messages and social networking sites.

Welcome to the age of Mass Communication.

And 30 years of Emergency Law? That boggles my American mind. I mean, I can kind of understand it because Egypt is a very different place from America, but that kind of bullshit wouldn't last nearly that long in the states.

[LadyTevar]

And 30 years of Emergency Law? That boggles my American mind. I mean, I can kind of understand it because Egypt is a very different place from America, but that kind of bullshit wouldn't last nearly that long in the states.

Israel on one side, unstable nations to the south and east? The drought that's hit a good part of Africa for the last few decades adding more chaos to the political and social climate? Religion?

I think Egypt's got good reasons for the Emergency Law, and can sell it to their voters.

[frigidmagi]

It's been 30 years Tev. They don't have voters.

[LadyTevar]

They have elections, don't they?

[Charon]

If you want to call them elections...

It's akin to calling the Black Sea Lake Superior, but it kind of works.

[frigidmagi]

They have elections, don't they?

Here's how an election in Egypt works. You can vote for the incumbent or check a box that says other. No one else is allowed to run for President who by the way holds all the power in this "republic."

They did this until 2005, where the President declared he would allow others to run. Course the requirements are so strict that pretty much no one else can. The guy who did manage to barely make it through the process (only after alot of foreign pressure) was arrested and thrown in jail after wards. It's about as democratic as a Soviet Election where you voted for who the Party damn well told you who to vote for.

So no. They don't have voters. They have box checkers.

[LadyTevar]

Thanks for the clarification, Frigid. That does explain more about the Emergency Law lasting this long as well.