State-owned Al-Ahram leads with a report on a meeting held by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the cabinet and head of the high elections council Tuesday over the preparations for Egypt's parliamentary elections.
During the meeting chaired by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, those present stressed the importance of backing the Interior Ministry's role in securing polling stations. Tantawi said the ministry had “full support” for performing this function. There are many fears over the potential lack of security during the elections, though in the past it was often the Interior Ministry that played a role in the outbreaks of violence at the polls.
In another story, Al-Ahram reports that the government has foiled a protest planned for Friday by reaching an agreement with political powers over Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Selmy's constitutional principles document. The nonbinding document prompted outcry from the public and various political factions, but for different reasons.
While some had objected to the document for giving a special role to the armed forces with very little oversight of its budget, the main objection made by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood — which warned against Friday's protests — was over Articles 9 and 10, which dealt with the composition of the committee that will be tasked with drafting the new constitution, Al-Ahram says.
Selmy met with representatives of groups that oppose the current draft, and Al-Ahram says they reached an agreement after Selmy promised to modify certain aspects of the articles in a way that would still protect the armed forces' "privacy."
Privately owned Al-Shorouk writes that Selmy agreed to remove language designating the armed forces the defender of the country's constitutional legitimacy. However the clause protecting the secrecy of the military budget will remain. Participants at the meeting also agreed that the document was a guiding one that was morally but not legally binding.
Al-Shorouk publishes an op-ed that incarcerated activist Alaa Abd El Fattah wrote from his Tora prison cell. Abd El Fattah is accused of inciting violence against the armed forces on 9 October, the night of the Maspero massacre when 28 people, mostly Coptic protesters, were killed. In his piece he writes about the danger of legislative power remaining in the hands of the armed forces, even if it is restricted to legislation regarding their own affairs.
Abd El Fattah cites military trials and the far-ranging powers of military justice as examples of "how legislation meant for the military institution alone [is] transformed into an instrument used to rape judicial authority.”
In other news, state-owned Al-Akhbar publishes an “exclusive” spread on page six about the foreign funding of local NGOs with a subheading that says foreign donors wanted to interfere in Egypt’s affairs and empower one section of society over others. The findings the newspaper publishes are from a report by a Ministry of Justice fact-finding commission tasked with investigating the issue.
The commission found that US$40 million of the $65 million the US has purportedly pumped into Egypt to promote democracy has actually only gone to two bodies, and American ones at that — the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican Institute, Al-Akhbar reports.
But it’s not just American funding that’s under the spotlight, as Al-Akhbar's report states that a Qatari institution donated more than LE180 million to the Ansar al-Sunnah al-Mohamadeya (Supporters of the path of Mohamed) group, while a Kuwaiti institution donated over LE114 million to the same group, making it the biggest recipient of foreign aid in the country. The newspaper contends that the donations have to do with promoting Salafism in Egypt.
Additionally, the Mohamed Alaa Mubarak Institute, created after the deposed president’s grandson died last year, received more than LE86 million in funds in 2011 from the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Finally, protests in the Mediterranean port city of Damietta continue as residents object to the continued presence of a fertilizer plant they claim is polluting the water in the surrounding area. The liberal Al-Wafd paper reports the protests reached the prime minister's office after plant employees traveled to Cairo to protest the decision to close it down. Private daily Al-Tahrir reported that as angry residents closed down the roads leading to the plant in Damietta, angry employees closed down Qasr al-Aini Street in Cairo.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
