中东—埃及反对派领导人选举失利

Egyptian Opposition¹ Leader Loses Parliament Seat

埃及反对派领导人选举失利

 

Presidential runner-up and opposition leader Ayman Nour has lost his seat in parliament to a member of the ruling National Democratic Party.

 

Voting day was tense in the crowded neighborhood of Bab As-Shariya, which Mr. Nour has represented in parliament for the past decade. Fights broke out repeatedly between supporters of the National Democratic Party and Mr. Nour's Al-Ghad, the Tomorrow Party.

 

Mr. Nour's supporters have a long list of complaints about the way the election was run in Bab As-Shariya. They include voter intimidation², harassment³ of his party members, and overt⁴ vote-buying.

 

Mr. Nour's wife and spokeswoman, Gameela Ismail, said she felt defeated before the ballots⁷ were counted. Just before the polls closed, she spoke⁵ to VOA outside a polling station, surrounded by hundreds of aggressive supporters of the ruling party, who several times tried to disrupt the interview.

 

Gameela Ismail: This is the dirtiest election I have ever witnessed in my entire life. All of these slogans and banners regarding transparency, democracy, freedom - this is all nonsense.

 

Mr. Nour has complained of government harassment since he declared himself a candidate for president earlier this year. He was jailed for several weeks before the presidential election, and he still faces a criminal trial on charges of electoral fraud, which he says are trumped-up to discredit⁸ him.

 

Mr. Nour's party has been literally⁹ torn in half by infighting since the presidential election two months ago. Rather than build on Mr. Nour's surprisingly strong showing - he finished second, albeit¹⁰ with only seven percent of the vote. The party has self-destructed. 

 

A group of other Al-Ghad officials tried to oust¹¹ Mr. Nour from the leadership of the party he created, accusing him of financial mismanagement. They started publishing their own version of the party newspaper, with the same name and the same design. It reportedly had front-page articles complimenting Mr. Mubarak.

 

Ms. Ismail says the ruling party infiltrated¹² the Tomorrow Party.

 

She says she and her husband believed the harassment would end after the presidential election in September. But she says the ruling party was not content to beat her husband in the presidential election.

 

Gameela Ismail: No, it has to crush you into pieces. It has to crush your bones into little pieces.

 

Election officials announced a handful of results, in addition to Mr. Nour's loss. Most of the other districts will go to a second round because no candidate got more than half of the votes. Some constituencies had 20 to 30 candidates.

 

The parliamentary election is especially important to the opposition because of a controversial change in the constitution made earlier this year. Each party that wants to field a candidate in the next presidential election must win at least five percent of the seats in the legislature.

 

 

注释：

parliament [5pB:lEmEnt] n. 国会，议会

ballot⁶ [5bAlEt] n. 选举票

slogan [5slEu^En] n. 口号，标语

transparency [trAns5pZErEnsi] n. 透明

harassment [5hArEsmEnt] n. 折磨

trumped-up [5trQmpt5Qp] adj. 捏造的，伪造的

albeit [C:l5bi:it] conj. 虽然

constituency [kEn5stitjuEnsi] n.（选区的）选民

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

3 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

4 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

7 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

11 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。

12 infiltrated   

adj.[医]浸润的v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The headquarters had been infiltrated by enemy spies. 总部混入了敌方特务。
• Many Chinese idioms have infiltrated into the Japanese language. 许多中国成语浸透到日语中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》