Muslim Brotherhood Says They Have the Lead in Egypt's Elections

Brotherhood starts to party like it’s 1979.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s party said Wednesday its alliance was leading in Egypt’s election, which would give the nation’s oldest Islamist group a powerful parliamentary platform to challenge the authority of ruling army generals.

State television said first-round results in Egypt’s first free election since army officers ousted the king in 1952 would be issued Thursday, a day later than scheduled because of a high turnout in the largely peaceful poll.

One party said it doubted the alliance led by the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party had won 40 percent of the vote, as stated by an FJP source, but other parties provided estimates that were in line with the figure.

The results, if confirmed and repeated in the two remaining phases of a six-week election process, would position the Brotherhood to jostle for power with the military council that replaced Hosni Mubarak in February after a popular uprising.

The council, under increasing pressure to make way for civilian rule, has said it will retain powers to choose or dismiss a cabinet. But the FJP leader said Tuesday the majority in parliament should form the government.

“The Brotherhood’s goal is to end corruption and start reform and economic development and that’s what attracted many to join it, including myself,” 28-year-old Ali Khafagi, who is head of the FJP’s youth committee, told Reuters.

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“Freedom and Justice Party.” That’s about as honest a name as the quota-devoted, legislating-from-the-bench Democratic Party. As for the Brotherhood promising to end corruption and promote economic development, well, politicians make lots of promises. It’s what they do that counts. The Brotherhood was revived by a man who thought sock hops were grotesquely immoral. They’re not about freedom in any true sense of the word, except perhaps the freedom of the grave for all us infidels.

If the Muslim Brotherhood wins, the Middle East changes for the worse, probably in a hurry. If you like the direction Pakistan is going in, and if you think the Iranian mullahcracy is peachy, you’re gonna love the new Egypt under the Brotherhood. For starters, the killing of Osama bin Laden, an unambiguously Good Thing, has left Ayman al-Zawahiri in charge of al Qaeda. He’s not just a Brotherhood supporter, he hails specifically from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The Mubarak government imprisoned and exiled Zawahiri for his and the Brotherhood’s role in the assassination of President Anwar al-Sadat. With Zawahiri atop al Qaeda and his old chums atop Egypt, a strategic alliance between Arabia’s largest and most influential state and al Qaeda is not out of the question.

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