Election in Egypt: Will Muslim Brotherhood or even more fundamentalist Nour win?

The people of Egypt are preparing for the second round of free parliamentary elections set for Wednesday. The current installment of elections will take place mostly in the region known as upper Egypt, and analysts predict that the conservative Muslim Brotherhood will continue to dominate the elections.

CAIRO, EGYPT (Catholic Online) - Free elections in Egypt are of profound historical significance. Egypt has never been a free country despite thousands of years of history. The Nile River Valley is one of the original cradles of civilization, writing and a number of other great human achievements occurred there,  yet despite the greatness of Egypt's history, and people have never been free to undertake elections -- until now.

The people are excited to have their new found freedom, and to have a meaningful voice in an election where they feel the outcome is truly up to them. However, it's not all roses.

The last round of elections which took place on November 28 were tainted by allegations of fraud.

Meanwhile, nervous observers and Westerners are concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood, a political party outlawed under Mubarak, will seize control of the government and take the country down a path that they do not wish to see. A new threat has emerged to challenge even the Muslim Brotherhood.

A fundamentalist conservative group, the Nour Party, did particularly well in November's first round of elections, and the group which is clearly religious and fundamentalist, appears to be growing in popularity. Observers say the Nour Party is popular because it is viewed as clean and untainted by corruption. For a jaded population, accustomed to corruption as business as usual, the Nour Party is both refreshing and irresistible.

Carefully watching these groups is the military, which has been in power for almost a year after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The military appears reluctant to cede power altogether, and is seemingly hopeful that the parliamentary elections result in a chronically deadlocked body that will wield very little effective power.

Meanwhile, Nour Party officials are denying that their group wants to impose strict Islamic fundamentalist law. The party says that "full  [gender] equality" is part of its platform. The party is also pointing to its social work and other political endeavors to distance itself from accusations that it has theocratic designs on Egypt.

Party spokesman Mohamed el-Nour, said "People claim we think technology and science defy God, but that's not true. We want to be up to date and modern, with a confined freedom where people can live free to express themselves within the limits of the Sunna and Sharia."

The Nour also claim that the "liberal" media is spreading false and misleading information about the party and its goals.

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By and large, experts say that the majority of the Egyptian people are religiously conservative, but politically moderate. He also pointed out that being pious conservative Muslim, does not mean that the one is automatically at odds with the West.

So now, the political forces that represent the people of Egypt are headed for a free and democratic showdown on Wednesday. The two dominant political parties, the Muslims Brotherhood and the Nour Party continue to go head-to-head as they fight to win the votes of the Egyptian people. Meanwhile, the military continues to watch both groups closely, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood who it blames for much of the domestic unrest that has taken place over the past several months. 

Regardless of the outcome, is widely hoped that the elections will be free of both fraud and violence and that whatever the outcome the Egyptian people are left able to enjoy their first breath of political freedom in history. The real question is, with this freedom to govern themselves through an election, what will they choose/ 

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