Apr 01 2011
Democracy in the News 6: Democracy in Egypt
In my previous “Democracy in the News” post, I followed up on the first post I wrote on the revolution in Tunisia at the beginning of the term. This post examines the consequences of the revolution and the first steps towards democracy in Egypt.
On February 11th, Hosni Mubarak was forced from power in Egypt as a result of protest against the authoritarian regime. Al Jazeera reports that since then, the military has ruled Egypt by dissolving the parliament and suspending the constitution. The president will be elected by the end of the year, but until then, the military will exercise the powers of the head of state. The military will surrender the powers to a new parliament after its elected in September. A member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces also stated that the presidential election will take place a couple months after the parliamentary elections and he also announced a constitutional decree for the temporary administration. The decree will act as an interim constitution that allows a competitive presidential vote, restores judicial oversight over elections and restricts the future president’s time in office to two four-year terms. Also, it declares Egypt as a democratic state, allows peaceful protest, guarantees freedom of expression and a free press. However, once the parliament is formed, a new constitution will be written.
Despite this, the young protesters that caused the revolution fear “that the military could ultimately retain its grip on power, [therefore]”saving” Egypt’s revolution will require a liberal program for moving the country forward — and fast.” While they have ultimately received what they were protesting for, the masses are still demonstrating. They want Mubarak and his associates to be put on trial and to return the public funds they stole from the Egyptian people. On Friday, tens of thousands protesters rallied in Tahrir Square to make their demands heard. The turnout was a signal to the military that the “people” were still invested in the revolution. The Atlantic reports that many of the protesters were independents “[who] have no leader or even set of leaders who can channel their demands for a better future into a widely agreeable program, and nobody can credibly represent them before the military council. So for now, the masses can only unify against things.”
While the progress in Egypt is evident, many (especially the youth that started it all) feel that they are still being underrepresented in the regime they fought so hard to obtain. What could be done to change this?