Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Referendum on the Constitution Begins

See also Syria Live Coverage: "The Only Terrorism is That of Assad"
Friday's Palestine, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Hamas Shows Its Strength in West Bank

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2100 GMT: Egypt. About 500 supporters of prominent Salafist preacher and former Presidential candidate Hazem Abu-Ismail have allegedly attacked the headquarters of the opposition Wafd Party.

Mohamed Tharwat, managing editor of Al-Wafd news website, told the Hayat television channel that attackers surrounded the building, located in Cairo's middle-class Dokki district, and sprayed it with fireworks.

Reporter Omar Said said attackers broke into the building and beat up journalists and Wafd Party members.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Regime on Its Last Legs?

2016 GMT: Syria. The discussion continues (see last 2 updates) - Hama Echo offers another blog post that has analyzed videos coming from this artillery site. However, according to the analysis, the second video we've posted is older than the 1st one that claims to have been taken today.

The blog post also analyses what weapons appear to be used, and where those weapons appear to be located. The post focuses on comparing the videos of this camp to the ordinance that has reportedly been used against the city of Homs in the past. It's complicated, but a good read.

Our conclusion? The two videos taken together serve as fairly convincing evidence that shabiha are conducting military operations inside the artillery camp, and are being directly trained by the Syrian military. The evidence is compelling, but not indisputable. The blogger Bjørn H Jespersen offers compelling evidence that the videos show an artillery base in El Waer, Homs, with mortars firing in the direction of the populated city.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Punishment and Protests

Protest in Anadan in Aleppo Province tonight, chanting about Syrian President Assad, "Bashar is a traitor"

See also Syria Video Special: The Friday Protests
Yemen Interview: President Saleh "I Will Retire When There Are Elections"
Syria Special: #MediaFail --- It's Not Yet a Civil War
Bahrain 1st-Hand: "48 Hours in Sanabis"
Thursday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Showdown Looms?

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2010 GMT: An EA source in Bahrain reports blocked roads in many villages, some blocked by protesters to prevent police getting in, others blocked by police to prevent protesters getting out. The source continues, "There are clashes between protesters and police in many of the villages. On my round now I passed on at least seven protests/clashes."

2000 GMT: A lower-than-expected turnout --- at least for protest organisers --- in Tahrir Square in Cairo today.

Thousands came out for the rally, with most stages set up by leftist and revolutionary youth movements, chanting against the ruling Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and its head, Field-Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi: "Tell the truth! Will you nominate yourself for the Presidency?" demonstrators shouted in reference to SCAF chief Field-Marshal Hussein Tantawi. Many protesters wore shirts with stickers reading “No to SCAF” and carried signs bearing anti-SCAF slogans. One banner depicted a turtle, reflecting popular frustration with the slow pace of change during the post-Mubarak transitional period.

One bright spot amidst the disappoointment: Hollywood actor and political activist Sean Penn, waving an Egyptian flag, put in an appearance.

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Will a Million March?

0522 GMT: We can now confirm that there will be a countrywide protest in Egypt on Friday. The day has been dubbed the "Friday of Departure" and it aims to force President Hosni Mubarak to once and for all quit and leave the country. 

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Egypt Snapshot: Mubarak "Pleased" But Protests Continue Over Elections

Yesterday, even as President Hosni Mubarak tried to settle any tensions over this month's Parliamentary elections, in which his ruling National Democratic Party won more than 90% of the seats, there were further signs of troubled political waters.

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Egypt and the Elections: The "Strategic Blunder" of President Mubarak's Party (Hamid)

There is no transition whose beginning is not the consequences --- direct or indirect --- of important divisions within the authoritarian regime itself. Those divisions, in Egypt, are only likely to grow.

For the National Democratic to make a strategic blunder at such a crucial moment in Egypt's history suggests a regime that is nervous, unsure of itself and increasingly incoherent.

The Parliamentary elections were the first such mistake. Whether there will be more ---- and whether the opposition manages to capitalise --- will determine the course Egypt takes in the coming, critical months.

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Egypt's Elections: The Outcome (Howeidy)

Claimed footage of vote-rigging arrangements by supporters of ruling National Democratic Party in Alexandria:

Amira Howeidy of Ahram Online summarises the state of the new Egyptian Parliament after yesterday's second-round voting:

In the parliamentary election’s second round, preliminary results indicate that the NDP [ruling National Democratic Party] has swept 96 percent of the available seats.

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Egypt Latest: The Second Round of Parliamentary Elections

1940 GMT: Election monitors have said turnout was as low as 5% in some districts. The head of the High Elections Commission operations room, Ahmed Shawqi, said just before polls closed that the turnout was “very low”, blaming it on the withdrawal of the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd Party from the run-offs.

1655 GMT. Residents of Daqahliya's Sandeela district have stormed a local polling station to protest alleged vote-rigging in favor of the two National Democratic Party candidates Noshi al-Basandeeli.

The crowd smashed 17 ballot boxes, tearing up votes and throwing them into the street.

Voting at the polling station was suspended.

1600 GMT: Statement of the Day. Al Jazeera's Ayman Moyheldin reports this comment from the ruling NDP's Atef Masoud: the elections were the will of "the Egyptian people [who] don't want opposition in Parliament".

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Egypt Elections Analysis: "The Door for a Challenge to Mubarak is Closed" (Iskander)

The door for a challenger in 2011 to President Hosni Mubarak or, if he declines to run, his son Gamal now seems closed. The failure of the opposition parties to win seats and the withdrawal of al-Wafd from this Sunday’s second round of elections [Editor's Note: The Muslim Brotherhood has also pulled out], comes on top of only eight victories for opposition and independent candidate in the first round.

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Egypt Latest: Today's Parliamentary Elections

We have now moved the LiveBlog to the top of the page, continuing our coverage of the aftermath of the election.