General Sissi wins Egyptian elections by 96,9% LOL

[Kyriakos]

The Election Commission announced the results of last week's election, saying el-Sissi won a landslide victory with 96.9 percent of the vote, with turnout of 47.45 percent. El-Sissi garnered 23.78 million votes, while his sole rival, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, got 318,000 — lower than the 1.4 million invalid ballots cast in the polling.

El-Sissi's victory was dented by the extraordinary means used by the military-backed government to drum up a large turnout for the election. After signs that the turnout on the first of two scheduled days of voting on Monday was a lowly 15 percent, the government declared the next day a national holiday to free people to go to polls. The election commission threatened to slap fines of $70 — a hefty sum for most Egyptians — on those who did not vote.

When Tuesday polling still seemed low, the commission abruptly extended the election to a third day. The state made bus and train travel free to allow migrants to return to home districts to vote. Throughout the day, TV networks berated Egyptians as "ungrateful" and "traitors" for not voting.
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Turnout on the third day was 10 percent, said Anwar el-Assi, the commission's president. He said the third day was added because a heat wave the first two days kept many voters from the polls.

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-ex-army...165552510.html

W
T
F?

3-day election?

Threats to fine (or kill i suppose) those who did not go to vote?
The main opposition parties banned from being in the election?
And still less than 50% said to have voted?

This is a mega-farce. I am sure Obama/Eurodrone leaders will speak of friendly democracy (with some problems) Egypt

[Adar]

I think you may be a bit confused about how democracy and elections work. So here is a color-map of the 2012 democracy index. In general "Eurodrones" and "Obamaists" like elections in countries coloured green and depending on personal preferences we also like countries colored yellow. Countries colored orange or red are generally considered "undemocratic" and elections in those countries are mainly supported by local patriots and angry teenagers who are upset by the world not being perfect.

[Kyriakos]

^Egypt's generals are seen as a friendly force by the US government, so i am not sure what your point is.

Or do you actually claim that the elections in Egypt are more democratic than those in the red countries in your own map? (eg Russia, Iran, China etc). Cause anyone thinking this election was not entirely rigged, is rather not in touch with reality.

[Adar]

^Egypt's generals are seen as a friendly force by the US government, so i am not sure what your point is.

Or do you actually claim that the elections in Egypt are more democratic than those in the red countries in your own map? (eg Russia, Iran, China etc). Cause anyone thinking this election was not entirely rigged, is rather not in touch with reality.

Being "friends" does not mean that you pretend that they are democratic, you are confusing "we like them because they are less crazy than the alternative" with a government being regarded as democratically elected.

[Dromikaites]

Actually sometimes free elections might end up with results like that, after a major crisis.

For instance the first democratically elected president of Romania Ion Iliescu won in May 1990 (5 months after the end of communism) with 85.06% of the votes in what all the Western media and observers reported to be fair and free elections.

Holding the first real elections after 45 years of communist dictatorship might explain the results. He was perceived as the guy who had toppled Ceausescu and, as importantly, who was preventing a slide into anarchy.

Likewise, the chaos Egypt has plunged in after getting rid of Mubarak might explain why people might massively vote for somebody they see as the key figure involved in ousting Mubarak (like Iliescu was percieived in ousting Ceausescu) and in restoring order (again, like Iliescu did, even though "restoring order" meant unleashing the coal miners on the opposition).

[Kyriakos]

^The election after Mubarak was ousted was a lot less absurd in its results. This one, on the other hand, is an effect of banning the other parties, which led to half of the people not even voting (despite the article noting they were threatened, and the election went on for 3 days...) and virtually all who did vote voted for the supreme democratic leader general Sissi

[Durnaug]

The Muslim Brotherhood or a Military Dictatorship -- devil and the deep blue sea?

In terms of context, I saw the MB as a burgeoning Islamo-Fascist regime (weren't they going to declare a holy war on Syria?!?!). Then the anti-MB protests started and, I think, the military exploited that unrest to gain full control again. Subtext of my verbiage -- yes the election is a joke but rather the military than the MB

Frankly, I don't think the US cares who is in charge, so long as it is not a genuine, secular democracy. I base that opinion on the observation that the US supported both the MB and the military.

[Condottiere 40K]

It's unlikely that the Egyptian elections were rigged, beyond the fact that the Egyptians are tired of voting, the religious opposition didn't really bother to turn up, and since everyone believed the outcome was a foregone conclusion, the secularists weren't motivated to turn up as well.

[Kyriakos]

It's unlikely that the Egyptian elections were rigged, beyond the fact that the Egyptians are tired of voting, the religious opposition didn't really bother to turn up, and since everyone believed the outcome was a foregone conclusion, the secularists weren't motivated to turn up as well.

Egypt...so many 1rst world problems...

Ie i don't think that sums what happened. Their country is going from bad to worse to worst, or thereabouts.

[Kyriakos]

So you have no issue with backing tyrants?

Not strange that the EU is heading towards that for its own system as well, i suppose.

[Durnaug]

So you have no issue with backing tyrants?

Not strange that the EU is heading towards that for its own system as well, i suppose.

Yup, we have our own brand of corporate oligarchs - we impose banksters as prime ministers and our EU legislation is a "cut and paste" job from corporate think tank reports.

[conon394]

So you have no issue with backing tyrants?

Not strange that the EU is heading towards that for its own system as well, i suppose.

The problem is Nations have interests not friends. From a US perspective we washed our hands of Mubarik and more less just watched what happened and at the end of the day Egypt was getting less and less stable and that is really the only thing the US has and interest in or cares about is a stable Egypt. So sure now they are back to the Army running the show because at least they seem competent. It would have been great if Egypt could have made a transition like Chile or just turned into Canada or Sweden but that was never really in the cards was it?

[Adar]

So you have no issue with backing tyrants?

Not strange that the EU is heading towards that for its own system as well, i suppose.

I got huge issues with it, but the alternatives are worse.

[Lord of Nihilism]

I support the General in his presidency. If he manages to improve Egypt's infrastructure, economic power and military power, his reign will be proof that military commanders are adept at leading countries.

[Condottiere 40K]

No one denies that Egypt seems to be heading down the sewers, the question was what remedy they'll pick to prevent that?

They went the Muslim Brotherhood route, but once they were in office, their primary goal was to try and completely Islamize the State and the Egyptians.

So the military strongman option is back on the table.

[Roma_Victrix]

@Dromikaites: I agree to an extent with your argument, but 96%...that's way too high, even with just 47% turnout of the population voting. If the figure is actually correct, it's obvious the opposition just completely boycotted the voting process, or didn't have ample time to mobilize.

[hellheaven1987]

@Dromikaites: I agree to an extent with your argument, but 96%...that's way too high, even with just 47% turnout of the population voting. If the figure is actually correct, it's obvious the opposition just completely boycotted the voting process, or didn't have ample time to mobilize.

47% turnout rate with two extended days and threats of legal action against those who did not vote - still 53% did not show up.

[Mangalore]

47% turnout rate with two extended days and threats of legal action against those who did not vote - still 53% did not show up.

The turnout rate is probably the only thing indicating that the elections weren't rigged per se (as in manipulation of votes). All other factors indicate that they were still a farce though

[Jom]

This is a mega-farce. I am sure Obama/Eurodrone leaders will speak of friendly democracy (with some problems) Egypt

It's always easy to attack a position that no one has actually expressed. Why not wait until people actually comment on the result instead of trying to slander them ahead of time, but then I appreciate that's the route of least resistance, as no one is going to defend something they haven't even said?

[Salah ad Din Yusuf]

The muslim brotherhood and their supporters refused to partake (about 50%), hence the ridiculously high result for Sisi. I wonder what is the US response.