Cairo’s streets buzz with excitement as polling stations open late for voters, but doubts remain about Egypt’s future. (pic)
Historic: Egypt’s first democratically elected representatives for 60 years have gathered for the first session of the new parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party captured almost half the seats in recent elections. Outside the parliament building there were protests over the military’s continuing grip on power. Here is an interactive graphic which gives you a visual representation of Egypt’s new People’s Assembly, the lower house of parliament. (Pic)
Egyptians line up to cast their votes in historic election
Voters stood in long lines outside some polling centers in Cairo well before they opened at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET), a rare sign of interest in political participation after decades of apathy created by the mass rigging of every vote.
“We are very happy to be here and to be part of the election,” said Wafa Zaklama, 55, voting for the first time in a parliamentary . (source)
Erdogan set to secure third term in Turkey
Projections by Turkish media suggest the AKP will get 326 seats in the new parliament, the CHP will get 135, the MHP will get 53, and independents will get 36. But those estimates could change as the final votes are tallied.
Erdogan hopes to rewrite the country’s constitution after the elections, and had been targeting a two-thirds majority of 367 seats would have allowed his party to do so unilaterally, without the support of other parties.
‘Racist’ Political Ad Rejected by Swedish TV
Danish politicians are in an uproar over democratic freedoms across the water in Sweden, ever since a Swedish TV station rejected a political ad on Friday because of alleged hate speech.
The ad by the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats (SD) party shows a retiree hobbling forward while Muslim women in burqas charge past to win money from the national budget. “On Sept. 19,” their ad declares, referring to the date of upcoming national elections, “you can choose to cut money from immigration budgets, or from pensions.”The Swedish commercial television network TV4 decided not to air the spot because of concerns it would break the country’s hate-speech laws. A private radio station banned an audio version of the same ad on Monday.
