THE MIDEAST IN THE NEWS

Egypt’s Own Soap: The Presidential Elections

Since the fall of its President Husni Mubarak in February 2011, the Egyptian people have held their breaths as they faced trials and tribulations. This caused for many to take the streets again as well as lives to be lost since the spark of the January 25th Revolution. Nevertheless, Egyptians known for their humor have looked to it for a sense of comfort. This is probably one of the few things that keeps them sane and looking forward to a brighter future in the New Egypt. Every episode the Egyptian people experienced has been met with humor often times with dark elements to help relieve the real-life dramedy they are confronting. If you do not think the presidential elections are episodic enough, check out this summary of the ‘first season’.

Episode 1: Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan), Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh announces his bid for the Egyptian presidential elections. He is then expelled from the Ikhwan due his views on pluralism and their policy of “participation, not domination” in politics.

Episode 2: Former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nobel Laureate, Mohamed ElBaradei drops his bid for the presidential elections as a means of protesting against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces’ (SCAF) continued rule of Egypt.

Episode 3: A ‘birther’ controversy rises over Salafi Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail’s deceased mother’s citizenship. Known for his anti-American rhetoric, Abu Ismail inherently denies his mother holding dual-citizenship. Egypt’s law only allows Egyptians with parents of Egyptian citizenship to run for president.

Episode 4: Deputy to the Mubarak regime and head of Egypt’s Ministry of Intelligence, Omar Suleiman announces his bid for the Egyptian presidency.

Episode 5: The Ikhwan retracts from their “participation, not domination” policy by announcing its key financier turned multimillionaire businessman, Khairat al-Shater as their chosen presidential candidate.

Episode 6: On the premises of his deceased mother holding American citizenship, Abu Ismail is disqualified from running by the Supreme Presidential Elections Commission (SPEC).

Episode 7: Days later, SPEC disqualifies 10 of the 23 presidential candidates. As reiterated, the controversy over Abu Ismail’s mother brought an end to his presidential bid. In a surprise decision, al-Shater is disqualified on the basis of being a political prisoner, leaving the Ikhwan to back its other candidate Mohamed Morsi. Suleiman is also disqualified over the discrepancy of his support signatures.

Episode 8: Former Mubarak era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq is disqualified from election due to a new law passed in parliament not allowing those with ties to the former regime to participate in politics. A day later, Shafiq is allowed back in the presidential race by SPEC.

Episode 9: ElBaradei returns to Egypt to form a new political party known as the ‘Constitutional Party’ in an attempt to unite the Egyptian people and save them from what he calls a “messy democratic transition”.

Episode 10: SPEC declares Egypt’s presidential elections cancelled. A day later, a lower administrative court called the SPEC’s declaration illegal, claiming only the SCAF can cancel the elections.

Episode 11: The two most popular candidates according to Egyptian polling, former Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa and Aboul Fotouh, participate in Egypt’s first presidential debate, lasting over four hours.

Season Finale: Stay tuned for the first part of the season finale tomorrow and Thursday (May 23rd and 24th), as Egyptians participate in their first real presidential election. If a winner is not determined -- which is likely -- a run-off between the top two contenders will take place on June 16th and 17th.

* This was no way written as a mockery, but as a means of simplifying the build-up prior to Egypt’s first presidential election.

*Photo Credit: safwat sayed