Egypt’s Elections

UPDATE

Ali and I made it outside for  a quick walk around the neighborhood (photos below). There were more police than voters present at most of the polling stations near our house. We saw a few picketers but everything seemed to have relatively calmed down from the morning.

Twitter is blowing up with posts about violence and buying votes; rumor has it that the going rate in our neighborhood is LE 20 (about $3.50) per vote.

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Sayyida Zeinab square on election day

CAIRO, 11am

Parliamentary elections happening today. It’s late morning and already reports of violence, polls opening late, and attacks from hired thugs on opposition candidates’ supporters are filling the news.

Even from the 12th floor of my building I can hear the music and chanting from the streets and the local mosque. I will update this when I go outside, but for now, a recent bout of food poisoning is keeping me in bed and out of work.

My roommate Ali. You can see we don't stick out at all...

A blog from a journalist at the country’s largest independent daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm about being interrogated by state security for attending a campaign rally:

Several government officials told me that it was my fault for being there. If I wished to interview a candidate, I was told, I should meet them in their office. To walk alongside a campaign rally constitutes “political activity,” they said–which apparently makes me and other journalists fair game in the eyes of the state.

http://almasryalyoum.com/en/content/%E2%80%9Cshubra-al-kheima-hazardous-your-health%E2%80%9D

(In the interest of objectivity I should mention this newspaper recently offered me a job)