Erstellt am: 28. 11. 2011 - 14:32 Uhr

Egypt goes to the polls, despite protests

Reality Check: Egypt elections, Morocco's new governement, Stuttgart 21, Extreme weather, NowHereland

Egyptians are finally going to the polls today at the start of what must be one of the longest and most complicated election processes ever.

Between now and January, there are elections for the lower house, followed by 6 weeks of voting for the upper house, with elections on different dates in different regions. There are 40 parties, fielding over 10,000 candidates, and two thirds of the members of each house will be elected by proportional representation, and one third by first past the post.

Not surprisingly, a lot of Egyptians are confused when they go to vote; but going to vote they are, and they are mostly very happy to have the opportunity of free and fair elections, even if they aren't quite clear on how it's all supposed to work or who they are voting for.

The moderate Muslim Brotherhood are almost certain to win the largest number of votes, but maybe not as many as they had hoped or expected. Their lack of participation in last weeks protests against the current military rulers cast doubt over their allegiances, but on the other hand, the die-hard protesters who are boycotting the vote are losing their chance to have a say in the country's constitution. Formulating a new constitution will be one of the first jobs of the new civilian government.

So far, the elections have gone off reasonably peacefully, and let's hope it stays that way. There is still a long way to go before Egypt can say it has a government that has been freely elected. Sammy Khamis reports from Cairo on the first day of voting.

Elections in Morocco

Morocco's moderate Islamic Justice and Development party has won the parliamentary elections, but the majority of power remains with the King. Michael Willis examines the significance of the election result and whether it will mean any sort of change for the country.

Climate change and extreme weather

Extreme weather events are often blamed on climate change, but in fact there is no evidence to link the two, according to climate researcher, Reinhard Böhm. He is critical of a recent UN climate change report that has caused alarmist predictions to be made in the media, and he says the main problem is that we have become more vulnerable to extreme events.

Stuttgart 21

The much criticised and debated Stuttgart 21 railway project is to go ahead after it received 60% popular support in a local referendum. The vote is setback for the Greens, the leading party in the ruling local coalition, who had campaigned for scrapping the multi-billion Euro venture, but is does resolve an issue that has been splitting the regional government for some time. Peter Fritz tells Steve Crilley about the importance of the referendum result.

NowHereland

As a part of the Licht ins Dunkel campaign for Amber Med, Riem Higazi talks to Ursula Karl-Trummer of NowHereland, a project that aims to improve health care services for undocumented migrants across the EU.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to Friday from 12.00 to 14.00, and after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.