Word: parliament
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mubarak had the parliament pass the amendments on March 19 and marched them to the voting booths for ratification just seven days later, giving Egypt's Kifaya (Enough) opposition movement little time to mobilize a "no" vote. A heavy police presence and the arrests of 50 activists disrupted Kifaya's plans to stage nationwide protests. But Kifaya's vote boycott dented the legitimacy of the foregone outcome (officially 79.5% approval). While elections officials claimed a 27% voter turnout, Kifaya leader George Ishak put the number at no more than 3%; the truth is probably somewhere in between, hardly evidence...
...Critics also seized on the change to Article 5 that effectively bars the legalization of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group and holder of 88 seats as independents in the current parliament. The contentious amending of Article 88 eliminates judicial supervision of elections and gives oversight authority to a new supreme elections council, thus ending what many Egyptians see as the only credible safeguard for free and fair voting...
...Khalilzad can at least tout disasters that have not happened as accomplishments: The Sunnis did not leave the government; the country managed to pull back from the brink of a full-blown civil war; the Iraqi parliament - however ineffective - did not dissolve. During the hour-long press conference, Khalilzad, who has made an art of providing quotes so diplomatic and academic that they cannot be sound-bitten, hedged every statement with a well-chosen adjective. Nevertheless, on balance, he saw hope ahead. He said the country was "fundamentally" heading in the right direction. He described himself as "cautiously" optimistic...
...Czech parliament approves plans to deploy a U.S. missile shield facility in the nearby hills, U.S. personnel are unlikely to be welcomed as the Red Army once was. The village that has yet to shake off its Brezhnev Village nickname is hardly ready to be dubbed Bush Town...
...Bayrou: But who has a majority? The people will decide who's in the next parliament [in elections] at the beginning of June. If the French beat back the PS and the UMP [in the final May 6 vote for president], as I think they want to, I promise you that they won't grant those partisans a majority in June. They'll vote for all those who want to participate in the new gathering of forces I'm proposing...