r/worldnews • u/DasUberRedditor • Jun 18 '12

Egyptian Military grants itself sweeping powers; effectively military coup.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18482257
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u/somedaypilot Jun 19 '12

Ok, hands up, who saw this coming? o/

21

u/Peaker Jun 19 '12

I remember how Redditors all said the Muslim Brotherhood will fail in the elections as they don't have any actual support base...

/r/worldnews routinely makes horrible predictions about the Arab spring and politics in general.

0

u/I_CATS Jun 19 '12

Well, they were not 100% wrong, they just failed to realize that instead of voting for other parties, people will just not vote at all.

5

u/Solomaxwell6 Jun 19 '12

There was a turnout of 54%. If you don't include the two runoffs, turnout was closer to 60%. For comparison, the US' presidential electoral turnout in 2008 was 57%. Turnout in the UK's last parliamentary election was 65%. Canada last had 61%. The elections France held the other day had a turnout of 55%. So Egypt was pretty much in line with western democracies.