While the papers gloat in the details of the first Eid Al-Adha that the leading figures of the fallen regime will spend in prison, the news continues to highlight confusion and setbacks in the path of the revolution that forced them out of power.
The Eid differs from past ones in that instead of giving a speech congratulating people and promising them a better future, former President Hosni Mubarak is incarcerated and the former first lady is making calls to Arab and Western countries to seek pressure for his release, as Al-Tahrir newspaper reports.
While Al-Ahram’s usual front page with Mubarak’s message to the people on the first day of Eid is missing, many similarities emerge between today’s news and the news on this day in past years.
In Al-Tahrir a very familiar headline reads “Gas queues kill the Eid joy,” above an article on the gas and petrol crisis in many governorates that led to large protests in Upper Egypt last night.
In a reminder of the Al-Salam ferry that sunk in 2006, killing over 1000 Egyptians, Al-Wafd reveals new information on the fire that broke out Thursday on the Bella ferry that indicates that the boat was carrying double its capacity and was sailing despite a report that deemed it unfit. Swift rescue efforts saved all the boat’s passengers, yet the incident demonstrates the same negligence that led to the Al-Salam ferry catastrophe.
With the parliamentary elections to start in three weeks’ time, the same old Eid campaigning tactics were witnessed last night. In an investigation entitled “Meat for votes” Al-Wafd observes that the cheap meat outlets run by the Muslim Brotherhood are an attempt to lure voters.
Another old elections tradition continues as an Al-Shorouk investigation, entitled “20 billion dollars for election campaigning,” reveals: Instead of abolishing vote-selling, all the revolution has done is increase the price of votes through creating competition between over 50 parties.
Al-Shorouk also covers the heated competition between Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary candidates for the illegal use of mosques, packed on the first day of Eid, for their political campaigns.
Meanwhile a number of ongoing crises continue, indicating that while the revolution might have deprived the Mubaraks from having their Eid breakfast in their mansion, it is still stumbling in most other aspects.
Confusion continues surrounding the struggle of Egyptians abroad for their right to vote.
State-run Al-Ahram declares on its front page that the cabinet has decided to allow those who carry a national ID card to vote, following a court ruling in their favor. Al-Dostour, however, reports the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as announcing that it is impossible for Egyptians abroad to vote because it would endanger the legitimacy of the elections.
Al-Shorouk publishes a reminder that the Mubaraks are not the only ones spending Eid in jail. The paper publishes the most recent piece written by activist Alaa Abd El Fattah from inside his prison cell, where he has been sent for 15 days by a military court pending investigation on charges related to his participation in the October 9 protests. The protests, dubbed the Maspero incident, turned deadly when violence that broke out between protesters and military forces left over 28 Egyptians dead.
Cartoons mirror the contradiction in the news between the celebration of the first post-revolution Eid al-Adha and the many hurdles the revolution is facing.
Ihab Hendy’s cartoon in Al-Tahrir features a sheep – which are traditionally slaughtered for Eid – threatened with a military trial, begging for mercy, yet between the two evils, preferring to be slaughtered.
Fahmy Howeidy criticizes the proposed Constitutional Principles bill, which he says puts the armed forces above the law. Debate over the bill, which has occupied most front pages since its declaration last week, was otherwise missing from Sunday’s papers.
Columnist Wael Abdel Fattah sums up the bitter-sweetness of the first post-revolution Eid al-Adha for Egyptians and Arabs in his Al-Tahrir column, entitled “Happy Eid indeed.”
“This year is not like past years when we used to make fun of our weakness opposite Mubarak’s might. Mubarak has cried on the shoulder of the king of Bahrain, and the king of Bahrain killed his people with the help of the Saudi king – something has changed, but it is not complete.”
