Election Results?

[LovelyLadyLux]

Anybody with feet on the ground have a sense of how the election went?

[Morgita]

I've been following the links posted by GD on the blue side and it appears that the Luxor area is voting Freedom and Justice Party which I believe is the Muslim Brotherhood. The overall picture is not yet clear as the elections are staggered but it would seem that change will be afoot and not all of it will sit well with the expat community. My guess is that tourism is so deeply embedded in the economy of the country that it will be protected and promoted. However not all foreign influences are likely to be welcome in a country which will no doubt want to confirm it's identity as a Muslim nation. The parallel I see is with my own home country, Ireland, which initially carved out an identity as a conservative Catholic country even establishing a "special place" for catholicism in the country's first constitution. As it grew in confidence it let go of the direct influence of the church but the process took about eighty years. It took that long to accept that the interests of church and state did not always coincide. For people of faith like my late mother this was a painful process. I think there are interesting times ahead. Please understand that these are just my musings and may be off base entirely. I'm sure the people on the ground are far better informed.

[Horus]

I don’t think you are too wide of the mark Morgita, I can also see a big change in the religious aspect of Egyptian politics with it playing a bigger part and influencing policies in a way that may well prove difficult for some expats living within the country. These things usually come in waves as regional politics change and I am old enough to have seen several exoduses of expatriate communities all over the world as the political rulers change in a given country, often for the worse as they assert their power. One only has to think of Zimbabwe, South Africa, The Belgian Congo, Beirut, Iran, Kenya, Cyprus, Uganda etc. to see examples of fleeing expats. Even in recent times we had many expatriate workers fleeing from Libya and other North African countries as regional politics went into meltdown, so as the saying goes “we live in interesting times”.