Egypt is the biggest, most influential country in the Arab world, and today's elections will have a major impact region wide. With 40 parties and thousands of candidates for the lower house of Parliament, the election itself was already a complex undertaking. Though turnout was massive for today's elections, protests continue and there's uncertainty about whether the vote will be "free and fair." A UN report accuses Syria of "crimes against humanity," and the Assad regime calls Arab League sanctions a declaration of "economic war." In Yemen, a protest leader has been appointed prime minister. Islamists have won in Morocco, and the government of Kuwait has resigned. We look at a region where decades of repression have given way to widespread instability.
Progress Reports on the Arab Spring
Credits
Guests:
- Shadi Hamid - Contributing writer,The Atlantic; senior fellow, Brookings Institution; assistant research professor of Islamic studies, Fuller Seminary; co-founder, Wisdom of Crowds, a podcast, newsletter - @shadihamid
- Mona Eltahawy - syndicated columnist - @monaeltahawy
- Robert Pastor - American University
- Borzou Daragahi - BuzzFeed News - @borzou
- Steven A. Cook - senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations - @stevenacook