20111224
Reuters
(Reuters) - In the provinces, where the chants in Cairo's Tahrir Square against the army are too distant to be heard, Egyptians say that holding their rulers to account should be done via the ballot box and not the street.
Before this week's latest round of voting in the staggered parliamentary election, protesters in Cairo battled with soldiers and troops. Women were stamped on, men were beaten while slumped on the ground and gunshots rang out.
The violence that killed 17 people subsided just in time for runoff votes in the six-week election that began last month and runs until early January. Voting was on Wednesday and Thursday.
Egyptians across the country of 80 million people have watched the tumult on television, many horrified by the security crackdown, but in rural Egypt and provincial towns the sense of tension is much less acute.
"Elections are the most important thing. We must choose someone and then we can hold them responsible and they would be accountable," said Nasser Mohamed, 45, who was ploughing his land in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, north of Cairo.
"This is not the time for protests. We are like a very ill man that can barely walk but is forced to carry a heavy box."
The clashes have driven a wedge between those determined to stay on the streets to demand the army swiftly give up power and others desperate for a return to order after turmoil that has hammered the economy by scaring off tourists and investors.
"I want security and the country to move on," said Abdel Moneim Abdel-Wahab, another farmer in the area. "We should obey the government. I must vote, shouldn't I?"
For many Egyptians like Abdel-Wahab, the army is the only institution capable of ensuring order. Many more believe an elected assembly would help get the country back on track and could also be a counterweight to the generals in charge.
Under the army's timetable, the generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak when he was ousted in February would keep hold of the reins of power till mid-2012. But they have promised to hand over to an elected president by July.
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The new parliament's primary job will be to appoint an assembly that will draft a new constitution but, as Egypt's first freely elected body in decades, it is expected to carry moral weight that the army may find more difficult to ignore.
Images of protesters being clubbed have flashed around the nation and abroad, going viral on the Internet. In one graphic clip, soldiers drag a woman on the ground, exposing her bra, then beat her repeatedly before one stamps on her chest.
"I am voting today because I want a better future for my children," said one woman, who did not want to be named. "I support protests in Tahrir as long as there is no sabotage. I don't want to see women unclothed."
But many of those in rural Egypt without computer access rely on state media, which has tended to carried less graphic images of the events. Generals have appeared on their screens defending their actions and blaming "third parties" and "thugs" for destabilizing Egypt and starting the violence.
"I have been watching news on television and I heard that the protesters receive money," said Hosni Mostafa, 65.
"Those who demand their rights should demand them peacefully. My rights have been abused in this country, but it doesn't mean I can go and sabotage public property," he added.
Even in Cairo, there are those who are angry at the protesters who they say are inciting the violence.
"I don't blame the armed forces for any violence in these times. The people who burnt the scientific building are not revolutionaries. They are thugs and they have to be dealt with," Mahmoud Sadek, 21, who guards a shop in downtown Cairo, a few streets away from Tahrir.
He was speaking about a building containing historic archives next to Tahrir that went up in flames during a protest.
State newspaper headlines on Thursday, the second day of voting in this stage of the election, focused on reports that there was "a sabotage plot" and reported that gasoline containers were handed to some protesters in the square to burn "vital facilities."
"The absence of leadership for protesters allows thugs to infiltrate them. They should have someone who represents them to convey their demands," said Mahmoud Abdel Samee, a teacher, voting in the town of Belbes in Sharqiya.
"The army can't see saboteurs and do nothing."
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