Expectation, confusion, speculation in run-up to Egypt’s vote

As the results from expatriate voting in Egypt’s presidential elections pour in, speculation, expectation, and last minute endorsements for next week’s historic election dominate the Arab press.

Liberal Egyptian paper Youm7 reports that with most votes from foreign countries counted, “Abd Al-Munim Abu-Fattouh [is] leading followed by [Amr] Moussa.” But even with the first round of concrete results in, the predicted winners vary from publication to publication.

An article in the Palestinian paper Al Quds is entitled “Ahmad Shafiq, one of the top officials of the Mubarak era, is one of the candidates most likely to win,” while another piece in Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya writes, “[Muhammad] Mursi [Muslim Brotherhood]: Results from Egyptian vote abroad promising.”

Egypt’s most popular newspaper Al Masry Al Youm reports that mixed predictions have been accompanied by last minute campaigns that are “increasingly resorting to negative tactics.” This has included more personal coverage of the candidate’s lives, as Al Arabiya headlines with an article today entitled “Wives of Presidential Candidates refuse title of Egyptian “First Lady.” The piece profiles the level of involvement of the candidates’ wives in their husbands’ campaigns. “The experience of Suzanne Mubarak… intervening in state affairs… is still fresh in their minds,” and therefore, almost all the candidates’ wives have publicly declared they will “not have a presence.”

Reports are also cautioning against overestimating the potential impact of the new president. An article in Al Masry al Youm warns against the “fantasy” elements of many presidential campaigns, and leads with a quote from James Moran, the head of the EU Commission to Cairo, “The Egyptian elections will not make miracles.”

Other commentators are concerned about the outcome of the first round of voting. Abdel Wahid, also writing in Al Masry al Youm, says “it is still possible to avoid inherent risks that may threaten the elections… if some of the candidates protest the first round.” He adds: “The prevailing political culture in Egypt does not ensure that the losing candidate in the run-off will behave in similar fashion to Sarkozy.”

Debate over Syria continues

The debate over Syria’s future continues to mainstream the Arab press, as Syria endures another violent day and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan calls for an increase in the number of international observers.

Bahrain’s Al Jazeera reports that a “car bomb exploded in the town of Deir Al Zour… next to a military intelligence office,” and international Arab newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat also writes of “massive demonstrations” in Aleppo, “the largest of their kind since the outbreak of the revolution…and since the ceasefire.”

Much attention in Arabic newspapers is given to varying degrees of international support and resistance to the Assad government.

An op-ed in A Sharq al Awsat argues that Israel is changing its tune on Syria. Abdul Rahman al Rasheed writes that because “Israel is more secure under Assad’s regime” than under any “Islamist” or “unknown” government, Israel was originally reluctant to support the revolution. However, recent comments by the Israeli government demonstrate that Israel realizes, “Assad has no future…and is doomed to fall,” and now maintains that “the fall of the Assad regime serves the interests of Israel against Iran.”

One columnist writing for international Al Hayat looks to America’s relations with the Assad government in an article entitled, “Obama wants to postpone Syria Revolution until after the elections.” Raghda Darham warns that if indeed intervention is postponed, “with such a persistent Syrian regime and an exhausted resistance and international community,” any further delays “will result in the growth of extremism and danger.”

Relations between Syria and other Muslim majority nations are also debated. An article in the Palestinian paper Al Quds Al Arabi reads “Tunisia’s Minister of the Interior recognizes the presence of Tunisians in the ranks of Syrian opposition,” a notion the writer stresses he does “not denounce.”

Another piece in Al Jazeera documents the activities of a Malaysian group of NGOs called “Save Syria,” which marched in protest of the “daily carnage” in Syria on Friday. The group called for “the international community to take drastic measures against Assad…” and for the “expulsion of the Syrian ambassador to Kuala Lumpur.”

Three Arab participants in Miss Canada beauty pageant

Al Arabiya reports that three woman of “Jordanian, Syrian, and Lebanese descent” will be participating in today’s Miss Canada pageant in Toronto. The front page article focuses on the controversy surrounding Jenna Talackova, a transgender contestant with an Arab background who “hijacked the spotlight in the days preceding the event.”

Talackova was originally disqualified from the event “after the director of the competition… discovered that she was not born female, which is required by the laws of the competition.” After her case was referred to the owner of the pageant, Donald Trump, “she was allowed to compete, which also opens the possibility to be the first [transgender] woman to compete in the Miss Universe competition.”

The article in Al Arabiya also highlights the story of two other Arab participants who have Saudi Arabian and Syrian ancestry.