Category: Middle East/North Africa

‘Dangerous backsliding’: radicals use Indonesia’s democracy to undermine it

     

  Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and former military general Prabowo Subianto will face off in a presidential election on Wednesday (Nikkei/CFR), with official results expected take up to a month to… Read more »

Mini-Arab Spring? ‘Khashoggi was right: Arabs still want democracy’

     

Before his death, the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was trying to set up several organizations to promote the cause of democracy in the region — particularly one that aimed, among… Read more »

Tensions in Indonesia: ‘resilient elections, defective democracy’?

     

On the eve of historic elections, a conundrum lies at the heart of Indonesian politics. Successive governments have built one of the most important foundations of a successful democracy: free,… Read more »

Egypt’s Sisi seeks approval to ‘further institutionalize authoritarianism’

     

Egypt’s military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is in some ways trying to turn the clock back, restoring the six-year presidential term and exempting himself from term limits—which, by the way,… Read more »

Arab Spring hopes ‘being revived across North Africa’?

     

In Sudan, tens of thousands of demonstrators are sitting in to demand the ouster of their longtime ruler. In Algeria, millions of protesters forced out their own octogenarian leader last week…. Read more »

Don’t ‘green light’ Egypt’s repression

     

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s visit to the White House on April 9, 2019 comes at a time when his government has been stifling dissent before a planned constitutional referendum that… Read more »

Downplaying Islamism, regime aims to demobilize Iran’s ‘underground but still vibrant’ civil society

     

  The European Union decided on Monday to extend restrictive measures imposed against Iran to last for an additional year until April 13, 2020, due to “serious human rights violations”… Read more »

Regime crackdown fails to silence Iran protests

     

The global campaign to free Iranian human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh is gathering momentum, as a regime crackdown fails to silence protests. More than 600,000 have signed a petition calling… Read more »

Algeria’s transition scenarios: ‘dreams of democracy tempered by fear of Islamism’?

     

President Bouteflika’s resignation has left Algeria facing a period of uncertainty replete with hope and fear, The (London) Times reports. The hope is that, at long last, this oil and gas-rich… Read more »

Generalissimo Sisi: Egypt’s President for Life?

     

  The Egyptian parliament is in the process of finalizing amendments to the 2014 constitution (right) that would allow President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in office for twenty years,… Read more »