IF THE results of the first batch of Egypt’s elections are replicated across the country, the Islamists will emerge as a lot more powerful than most analysts predicted.
In a string of villages and cities, including Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said, the Muslim Brothers seem to have scored between 30% and 40%, which would earn them at least 40% of seats in the People’s Assembly, the legislature’s lower house.
Even more strikingly, the Salafists, who espouse a more extreme and puritanical Islamist ideology, have far exceeded expectations, in some places getting a good 20% of the vote. [The Economist] Read more
