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CAIRO: Egypts presidential election, set to be the freest the country has ever had, began for citizens abroad Friday after a caustic televised debate between two candidates that produced no clear favorite to lead the most populous Arab nation.

Egyptians who overthrew President Hosni Mubarak as uprisings hit the Arab world last year are savoring the spectacle of politicians competing for their votes. The streets are abuzz with arguments over who is the best man to tackle poverty and corruption and uphold their new-found freedoms.

With no obvious winner for now, the fewer than 1 million expatriates registered to vote in consulates between May 11 and 17 may help swing the election. Recent polls suggest the race is wide open, with many citizens yet to make up their minds.

Expatriates who have registered to vote are a minority among the 6 to 8 million Egyptians who live abroad, mostly in Europe, North America and Gulf Arab states, according to official figures cited by local media.

In France, Abd al-Aal Shady, 55, an agriculture engineer living in Paris, said he had voted for the leftist Hamdeen Sabahy.

He is the black horse of this presidential election because he is the most famous to have fought the former government since he was a student, Shady said. If [Amr] Moussa wins, it is catastrophic for the people. It leads to a second revolution.

Hundreds of Egyptians queued in front of their embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh to cast their votes.

For the first time in my life, I take part in elections, and I dont know how it will end or who will win, said one of them, Mahy Samir.

In Rome, Aiman Younes, 45, a pizza maker, said he had voted for Abol Fotouh because he deemed him honest. I think it will get better. We are going through some difficulties but I hope things will improve, we just need a bit of time, Younes said.

Egypt is not used to this sort of thing. Slowly people will get used to it. I want the new president to focus on helping poor people, and making sure everyone has enough to eat.

Originally posted here:
Egyptian expats vote as leadership race heats up

11 May 2012 Last updated at 11:11 ET

Egyptian expatriates have started voting in the first presidential elections since an uprising forced Hosni Mubarak to step down last year.

But electoral officials say fewer than 600,000 of the nearly 10 million Egyptians abroad have registered.

Many failed to do so because of difficulties in obtaining new identity cards, which are required to vote.

Voters in Egypt will go to the polls on 23 and 24 May. A run-off will be held in June if no-one wins 50% of the vote.

On Thursday, two of the front-runners took part in the first presidential election debate live on Egyptian TV.

Millions watched the head-to-head between Amr Moussa, the former head of the Arab League, and the moderate Islamist, Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh.

Each was asked a wide range of questions - from how their powers should be limited as president to ensure they did not turn into a dictator, to more traditional topics such as health and education.

Overall neither dealt a decisive blow against the other, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo.

But in a reflection of the political dynamic since last year's uprising, some of their sharpest attacks concerned issues of Islamism and links to Mr Mubarak, our correspondent adds.

More here:
Expats vote for Egypt president

SINGAPORE: Four expatriates working in Singapore claimed they were assaulted by bodyguards of a royal family in Rawa island off Johor on Friday.

The four men were on holiday for the weekend at Alang's Rawa resort. The attack left one of the them, a German, critically injured and warded at a hospital in Singapore.

According to the Straits Times of Singapore, one of them, a Briton, 28, said the assailants had grabbed his arm and started kicking him.

The man said the royal entourage came in a large group with many security personnel.

Two of them were invited for drinks with a member of the entourage but things took a turn midway through their conversation.

Straits Times quoted the Briton as saying that he saw the German being slapped and assaulted by a group of men from the entourage.

At about 10am on Saturday morning, the group were asked to leave the island. A boat was arranged for them to leave.

Back in Singapore, the German man was placed in intensive care due to bleeding in his brain. He was moved to a normal ward on Tuesday.

The Straits Times said the British High Commission and German embassy were following up on the matter.

See original here:
Expats claim assault by bodyguards of royalty off Johor island

SINGAPORE: Four expatriates working in Singapore claimed they were assaulted by bodyguards of a royal family in Rawa island off Johor on Friday.

The four men were on holiday for the weekend at Alang's Rawa resort. The attack left one of the them, a German, critically injured and warded at a hospital in Singapore.

According to the Straits Times of Singapore, one of them, a Briton, 28, said the assailants had grabbed his arm and started kicking him.

The man said the royal entourage came in a large group with many security personnel.

Two of them were invited for drinks with a member of the entourage but things took a turn midway through their conversation.

Straits Times quoted the Briton as saying that he saw the German being slapped and assaulted by a group of men from the entourage.

At about 10am on Saturday morning, the group were asked to leave the island. A boat was arranged for them to leave.

Back in Singapore, the German man was placed in intensive care due to bleeding in his brain. He was moved to a normal ward on Tuesday.

The Straits Times said the British High Commission and German embassy were following up on the matter.

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12. Expats claim assault by bodyguards of royalty off Johor island

British expats wrongly charged inheritance tax on their Spanish properties are gearing up for a legal battle to reclaim the charges.

It is estimated that around 60,000 British families have been hit with Inheritance tax (IHT) bills for properties or assets they inherited in Spain. Charges are believed to be in the region of 400 million (490 million).

The Spanish government levied IHT of up to 35 per cent on non-residents, while Spanish residents paid close to zero per cent IHT.

The European Commission believes this is an unfair tax treatment with regard to EU citizens. It brought a legal case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in March arguing that Spain was infringing EU treaty freedoms. A verdict is expected from the ECJ which could open the floodgate to thousands of Brits reclaiming their tax, and force Spain to amend its IHT tax laws.

While 60,000 Brits are believed to have wrongly paid IHT, only 40,000 are still able to make a claim due to the Spanish legal time limits, which stop claimants attempting to make a claim after four years from the tax payment date.

An action group, Spanish Legal Reclaims , has been set up to represent those caught out by the policy. It is led by the same lawyer who won a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reclaim against the Spanish government. More than 280 million was returned to 90,000 British families after the European court case.

Luis Cuervo, CEO at Spanish Legal Reclaims, said: They may have believed they were fortunate to inherit a property in Spain, but in the process they have been scammed out of a lot of money.

The group is confident the verdict will go their way, given that the EU doesnt bring cases to the ECJ unless it believes they are legally sound.

British expat Peter Jackson, 62, inherited a Spanish property from his mother and paid more than 10,000 (8,000) in IHT.

He said: When we inherited the property in Moraira and paid the inheritance tax we knew no different, and so simply just paid it as we were told to. When we found that we had probably been overcharged by quite a large amount, we thought we had nothing to lose by trying to reclaim it.

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Expats in Spain 'owed £400 million in overpaid inheritance tax'