Council of Councils
Think Global Health
Online Store
Introduction
Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming. But despite intensified diplomacy, the world is already facing the consequences of climate…
More on:
President Morsi pledged to provide quick solutions to some of Egypt’s daily problems when he took office on June 30. As a candidate, Morsi articulated a detailed sixty-four point plan to improve the lives of Egyptians within his first hundred days in office in areas ranging from security to traffic, bread prices, street cleanliness, and fuel.
To track the president’s progress, young Egyptian activists created the "Morsi Meter," an Arabic and English language website that tracks the president’s performance on his sixty-four point pledge. More than thirty thousand people follow it on Twitter.
With just four days left in President Morsi’s first hundred days, the Morsi Meter reports that the Egyptian president has achieved only four out of his sixty-four promises. These include rewarding police officers for performance and restoring security, removing road obstructions, launching an awareness campaign about street garbage, and levying penalties against fuel smugglers. Meanwhile, the tracker finds that the president has made progress on another twenty-four out of the sixty-four total promises.
Given this lackluster fulfillment of Morsi’s pledges, what is truly striking is that the Morsi Meter found that 42 percent of respondents to its online poll reported to be satisfied with the president’s achievements so far. This satisfaction rate posted on the site is surprisingly high in light of Morsi’s dismally low achievement rate (just over 6 percent).
Whatever Morsi’s relative popularity, it is not coming from his bread and butter delivery. Perhaps he is still enjoying a post-Mubarak honeymoon, or maybe Egyptians never truly took his pledges too seriously. What do you think is the reason?
Still, there are four days left for the Egyptian president to fulfill his sixty-four pledges for his first hundred days. Maybe he will rally with a number of achievements in the next few days. Somehow, that seems unlikely.
Perhaps most importantly is the phenomenon of the Morsi Meter. Egyptians are holding their elected president accountable to his words. One only hopes they continue after he completes his first hundred days.
More on: