Big Mess in Egypt

By Micah Halpern

I've Been Thinking:

The Egyptian presidential election is just one big mess.

The Supreme Court of Egypt is scheduled to publish a ruling two days before the June 16 - 17 presidential runoff. The ruling will determine if Ahmed Shafik is eligible to run.

Shafik was disqualified under a law passed and accepted by the ruling military. The law said that former cronies of the Mubarak government could not run for president. Ahmed Shafik was prime minister under Mubarak.

Shafik was originally disqualified but appealed and the election committee let him run. The election committee then referred the entire issue to the Supreme Court. Now it gets even more complicated. The head of the election committee, Farouk Sultan, is also president of the Supreme Court.

If the law is constitutional, then Shafik cannot run. If Shafik cannot run, there is no need for a runoff - but there will be the need to redo the elections. If Shafik can run then so can other candidates like Omar Suleiman former head of intelligence was also prevented from running in the primaries because of their affiliation with Mubarak.
Like I said, a real mess.

Micah@MicahHalpern.com 

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