[grass is greener] here at home

Our own problems with the Blogpower polls and allegations of their surreptitious stacking by the strong-arm boys pale into insignificance beside Egypt:

One person has been killed in violence outside a polling station in Egypt's northern Nile Delta region, as Egyptians go to the polls in parliamentary elections. A number of opposition groups boycotted Monday's election, the first held under constitutional amendments approved by a referendum in March, but the Muslim Brotherhood participated.

The constitutional amendments [which gave rise to the election] give greater powers to the upper house but impose wider restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood, the ruling National Democratic party's main challenger. The elections are also a test of a new law banning the use of religious symbols and slogans, a move seen as an attempt to drive Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, out of mainstream politics.

Members of the National Democratic party had petitioned the commission to eliminate the Brotherhood candidates, alleging they had broken the law by campaigning under religious slogans. But the Supreme Administrative Court ruled on Sunday that there was no conclusive evidence that the candidates or their supporters had used religious slogans.

One could almost smile if it weren't so serious. Meanwhile, we also have an expulsion on the agenda. Read about it at Blogpower [banner top left].