Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

 An article in Washington Post discusses the current political situation in Egypt and the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The article demonstrated skeptism stressing the elections scheduled to run on Sunday would be held amid political turmoil and growing questions about the eventual successor of President Hosni Mubarak.

With The regime’s clampdown on the poplar Muslim Brotherhood the National Democratic Party will without doubt retain its grip on power.

According to the article the election, could boost the chances of Gamal, Mubarak's son, of becoming president next year. This however depends on which factions within the ruling party perform well in the elections. It stressed;
The vote and its aftermath are likely to be a harbinger of how the Arab world’s largest state, a key U.S. ally, will handle its first change of guard in decades. Mubarak, 82, who has been in power since 1981, has been treated for undisclosed ailments in recent months.

Political analyst Ammar Ali Hassan notes that the consequence of the elections seem to be destined, as events shape the authority for the post-Mubarak period.

The country has witnessed the silencing of critical media outlets and detained over 1300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood,
In Alexandria, a judge ordered the cancellation of the election in nine of 10 districts, citing the high number of disqualified candidates belonging mostly to the MB.

Calls have been disregarded as Washington called for the elimination of the emergency law that gives security forces wide powers to suppress rallies and demonstrations. Officials also have declined international observers to monitor the polls.

Critics assert that the government has stifled political participation in recent years through legal manoeuvres.

Joe Stark, the Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch, maintains that the combination of restrictive laws, intimidation and arbitrary arrests has made it extremely difficult for citizens to choose freely the people they want to represent them in parliament. He added that the repression by the government will makes free and fair elections extremely unlikely.