Egypt, Democracy | featured news

The freshly scrawled graffiti depicting Mohammed Morsi as a pharaonic Saddam Hussein tells the tale of high hopes dashed with record speed: Barely six months after becoming Egypt's first democratically elected president, the Islamist is widely accused of abandoning pledges of inclusive government for doctrinaire and authoritarian ways....

Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council has agreed to supervise a referendum on a draft constitution, a legal adviser to President Mohamed Mursi said on Monday, although some judges have called for a boycott.

The two highest appellate courts went on strike, and Islamist leaders of the constitutional assembly rushed to complete the charter by the end of the day.

...The truth is that there is no single explanation. One answer is that last year's wave of political uprisings, the so-called Arab Spring, is responsible. After all, protests began in Egypt, which last year became the most populous Arab democracy, and spread to Libya, which became the largest by area.

Having pressed the new Egyptian president, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday sought to mobilize what influence the United States still has with the army chief whose key role in post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt is splitting the country between those who see the military as a threat to democracy and those clinging to it as a guarantor of stability.

The developments, reported on the Web site of the official newspaper Al Ahram, further escalated tensions over court rulings on Thursday that invalidated modern Egypt’s first democratically elected legislature. Coming on the eve of a presidential runoff, they thrust the nation’s troubled transition to democracy since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last year into grave doubt.

Egypt's ruling military leadership will announce Wednesday a constitutional declaration that will operate as a working constitution in the current political transitional period, state-run news media MENA reported.

Egyptians flocked to the polls on Saturday for the first time since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled, eager to vote in a referendum on constitutional reform which will determine how quickly the country can hold elections.

Egypt's transition to democracy after 30 years of authoritarian rule faces a major test on Saturday when Egyptians vote in a referendum on amendments to the constitution. Opponents are pushing heavily for a "no" vote, saying the changes don't go far enough and that the ruling military is rushing the process.