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Egypt

Muslim Brotherhood Claims Presidential Victory In Egypt, Army Pushes Back

Worldcrunch

AL MASRY AL YOUM (Egypt), AL ARABIYA (Saudi Arabia), THE GUARDIAN (UK)

CAIRO - Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi claimed a narrow victory in the Egyptian presidential elections Monday, but pushback from his opponent and constitutional maneuvering from the Army leave Egypt's democratic transition as fragile as ever.

Morsi garnered 51.13 percent of the vote with 99 percent of the ballots counted, according to Al Masry Al Youm's affiliate, Egypt Independent. His opponent Ahmed Shafik, former presdident Hosni Mubarak's last Prime Minister and the Army's favored candidate, talllied 48.87 percent.

"Thanks be to God who has guided Egypt's people to the path of freedom and democracy, uniting the Egyptians for a better future," Morsi said in a speech at his campaign headquarters. He said he would be the president of all Egyptians.

The Muslim Brotherhood also announced their victory on their official Twitter account.

Shafik's aides quickly contested the results, Al Arabiya reports. A campaign official rejected the Brotherhood's proclaimed victory and told reporters it was a "hijacking of the election results."

Military authorities were even quicker to act, announcing important constitutional changes late on Sunday night when early results pointed to a Brotherhood victory. The Guardian reports that these changes strengthen the Army's political power in an attempt to negate the outcome of this weekend's election.

The Supreme Council of Armed Forces, or SCAF, has effectively awarded itself legislative powers in the process of writing a new constitution, including a veto over any clause it deems contrary to Egypt's interests. This "judicial coup" comes after a surprise ruling last week by the Supreme Constitutional Court that invalidated a third of the seats in the Islamist dominated lower house of Parliament, forcing a dissolution.

In addition to the Army clamp on presidential powers, the first democratically elected leader of Egypt will face economic and political challenges. Many Egyptians who gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square last year to overthrow Mubarak's regime feel that both Morsi and Shafik represent conservative forces opposed to the revolution.

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Society

Big Brother For The People: India's CCTV Strategy For Cracking Down On Police Abuse

"There is nothing fashionable about installing so many cameras in and outside one’s house," says a lawyer from a Muslim community. And yet, doing this has helped members of the community prove unfair police action against them.

A woman is walking in the distance while a person holds a military-style gun close up

Survellance and tight security at the Lal Chowk area in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India on October 4, 2022

Sukanya Shantha

MUMBAI — When sleuths of the National Investigating Agency suddenly descended on human rights defender and school teacher Abdul Wahid Shaikh’s house on October 11, he knew exactly what he needed to do next.

He had been monitoring the three CCTVs that are installed on the front and the rear of his house — a chawl in Vikhroli, a densely populated area in suburban Mumbai. The cameras told him that a group of men and women — some dressed in Mumbai police’s uniform and a few in civil clothes — had converged outside his house. Some of them were armed and few others with batons were aggressively banging at the door asking him to immediately let them in.

This was not the first time that the police had landed at his place at 5 am.

When the policemen discovered the CCTV cameras outside his house, they began hitting it with their batons, destroying one of them mounted right over the door. This action was captured by the adjacent CCTV camera. Shaikh, holed up in his house with his wife and two children, kept pleading with the police to stop destroying his property and simply show them an official notice.

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