Day: January 16, 2014
Egypt’s restoration referendum
I observed the Egyptian constitutional referendum yesterday and the day before in Minya governorate, whose provincial capital lies about 245 kilometers south of Cairo. The referendum was essentially a plebiscite on the July 3 removal of President Morsi by General Abdel Fattah al Sisi and the subsequent effort to restore the military to power behind the fig leaf of a civilian government.
My partner, translator and I visited about 30 polling stations in perhaps 15 polling centers as far south as Malawi and as far north as Bani Mazar. This is a poor, mostly agricultural part of Egypt that largely supported the Mubarak regime and has suffered hard times since. Many apartments lie unfinished or vacant. Churches as well as mosques dot the landscape. The rutted roads swirl with three-wheeled “took took” taxis driven by pre-adolescents, minibuses packed to the gills, donkeys hauling great mounds of greens, children playing in the dust as well as an abundance of cars and trucks, motocycles and bicycles. Officially, Egypt drives on the right, like the US. But that only applies when it is convenient–if you feel you need to be on the left, no one is going to stop you from driving there in Minya governorate. The only moving thing that does what you expect is the Nile, which flows calmly through the turmoil, its banks heaped with trash. Read more
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