Voting After Mubarak: What Can Egyptians Expect?

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/article/164114/voting-after-mubarak-what-can-egyptians-expect

Iman, a 24-year-old student at Cairo University, smiled as she walked out of the Tunisian embassy in Zamalek and proudly held up her left forefinger, which had been stained with purple ink. “We are happy,” she says. “Everyone who came to vote is happy.”

Iman is one of dozens of Tunisian expatriates living in Cairo who took part in early voting on October 20 in Tunisia’s first elections since the ouster of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali nine months ago. On Sunday, October 23, millions of voters in Tunisia will head to the polls to elect a 217-seat constituent assembly that will be tasked with drafting a new constitution and charting the country’s future.



The poll marks the first comprehensive general election of the Arab Spring and—its own problems notwithstanding—highlights sharp differences with what is expected to be the second: Egypt’s parliamentary elections scheduled to begin November 28.



“After several depressing weeks in Egypt this is a breath of fresh air,” wrote Issandr El Amrani, a Cairo-based journalist and political analyst, on his blog this week after arriving in Tunis to cover the elections. “It makes you wish Egypt had followed the same transition model.”