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Islamists leading in Egyptian elections
The Egyptian High Election Commission confirmed on Sunday that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is leading in the Egyptian parliamentary elections after the first round of voting. The party won 36.6% of 9.7 million votes cast. Turnout in the elections was around 60%. The Nour Party, organised by the more extreme Islamists of the Salafi trend, was second with 24.4%. The liberal Egyptian bloc came in third with 13.4% of the votes. The veteran liberal Wafd Party came in with 7.1%, while the moderate Islamist Wasat (Centre) Party had 4.3%. There are still two more rounds of voting set to take place in 18 of the 27 provinces in Egypt over the coming months. Run off elections to determine the 50 seats allocated to individuals (rather than allocated according to the proportion of votes won by party lists) are set to take place this week. Yet the current results appear to determine that Islamists look set to dominate the new Egyptian parliament.
It is important to note that the new Egyptian parliament will not at this stage affect Egyptian foreign policy, which is set by the president. Presidential elections are due to take place in June 2012. Nor is it clear how the battle lines within the new parliament will be set. Much depends on the strategy that the Muslim Brotherhood chooses to pursue. The victorious movement may choose to align with the liberal Egyptian bloc, in which case the Salafists will be set to constitute the main opposition grouping. Or the two Islamist blocs may align with one another, creating a straight religious vs. secular divide in parliament. Nevertheless, the Brotherhood will be defining the agenda.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak described the election results as ‘very disturbing.’ Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Ben Dor said, however, that Israel is not surprised by the Muslim Brotherhood’s initial gains and that he is convinced the Israel-Egypt peace treaty would remain intact. To date, Muslim Brotherhood statements regarding the peace treaty with Israel have been ambiguous.