At least 200000 Egyptians have signed up on Facebook to back Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear boss, who has said he wants to shatter 30 years of political stasis in Egypt by running for president. Despite a surge in online support for political alternatives to President Hosni Mubarak, 82, who has been in power since 1981, even ardent supporters acknowledge that online activism in Egypt cannot deliver change without action on the streets. ‘Crucial step’ Yusuf AbdelRahman, representing ElBaradei’s Facebook group, said the petition had 54870 online signatures so far but added that 15000 Facebook members have volunteered to go on the streets of Cairo and other cities to collect more signatures. “[This] is a crucial step considering that three decades of state repression has left many afraid of taking action. Others accept repressive measures as a fact of life,” he said. The speed supporters signed up to Facebook after ElBaradei returned to Egyptin February, adding tens of thousands in a few days, reflects pent-up frustration before parliament and presidential elections this year and next, analysts say. But they say the challenge is galvanizing the masses in a country where opposition parties are weak, where police crush even modest protests and where the banned Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest opposition group, has shunned action on the streets. Even modest protests in Egypt draw an overwhelming, and often violent, police response. But heavy-handed security has also …
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Bangladesh has been paralysed by a dawn to dusk general strike – as pressure grows for an early election. Opposition parties accuse the government of failing to deliver on a series of promises. Dozens of activists have been arrested during protests in the capital, Dhaka. Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque has more.
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It is election season in Iraq, on the 7th of March Iraqis will go to the polls and decide who will make up their next government. Iraq’s politicians want to be part of the new parliament but they are using a very old method of speaking to voters – the political poster. As a result, Baghdad’s printers and party activists are working around the clock. Omar al-Saleh reporting from Baghdad.
The two countries worst hit by the most devastating disaster in modern history have followed very different political paths. Indonesia chose a peace deal to end a 30-year old conflict in Aceh, while Sri Lanka opted to step up its military campaign against the Tamil Tiger separatists. As Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen finds, the decisions had a crucial impact on the recovery and healing process for those caught up in the tsunami.
Inside Story asks whether the current situation in Thailand is a battle for democracy or a power struggle between parties. Will fresh elections solve the crisis, or will they just give rise to the same problems again?
US troops are due to withdraw from urban areas in Iraq by June 30 but US military commanders are calling for some exceptions. Mosul is believed to be one of the last of al-Qaeda bases in Iraq and tensions remain between the once ruling Kurdish minority and the majority Sunni Arabs. In this exclusive report, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr discovered a city still at war.
Israel launched its war on Gaza in the run-up to its elections next month. Jacky Rowland reports that the two campaigns, military and political, have been inextricably linked, and the faces most closely associated with the war are now presenting themselves as the best leaders for Israel.
Inside Story asks whether the current situation in Thailand is a battle for democracy or a power struggle between parties. Will fresh elections solve the crisis, or will
