Egypt votes – on Facebook

While analysts and diplomats are wondering who will win the forthcoming Egyptian presidential election, the military junta (the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces, or SCAF) that runs the country has organised a poll on their Facebook page. More than 200,000 people seem to have taken part. And even accounting for the obvious deficiencies (e.g. the bias towards an unrepresentative, internet-savvy, and liberal electorate) and bearing in mind the near-certainty of fraud given that the SCAF’s FB site is run by military intelligence, the results are interesting nonetheless.

Topping the poll is, not unexpectedly, Mohammed El Baradei, the former head of the IAEA, whose internet-connected supporters have put him on 31 percent. But following him on 21 percent is a man who has no campaign, has not yet declared and who simply said last week that he was considering running: Mohammed Selim al-Awa. An Islamic scholar, and former head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars based in London, al-Awa’s popularity is intriguing.