Egyptians take to the polls
June 16, 2012
For the first time ever, ordinary Egyptians are voting for their next president, a year after autocrat President Hosni Mubarak was deposed. To the frustration of many, though, the choice is between a military man who served under Mubarak and an Islamist.
"Both are useless, but we must choose one of them, unfortunately." said Hassan el-Shafie, 33, in Mansoura, north of Cairo.
The contenders
Former air force commander Ahmed Shafiq, 70, was Mubarak's last prime minister, and he surged into the run-off from outsider status. He has garnered some of his support by playing on fears about rule by an Islamist.
His rival, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, however, portrays himself as a revolutionary. He has failed to win broader support, but there have been no reliable opinion polls to predict the results.
The election stems from the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that brought down Mubarak, but the vote itself may lead to more turbulence.
The army, for example, is unlikely to fully trust an Islamist president, and a Mubarak ally runs the risk of riling the revolutionaries.
Future is unclear
Some in Egypt have begun to wonder whether the generals who pushed aside Mubarak last year to appease the protesters will honor the plan to relinquish power by July 1 to the winner.
On Thursday, the country's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled certain articles in the law governing parliamentary elections to be invalid, thus forcing the Islamist-dominated legislature to be dissolved.
Add to that the lack of a new constitution, and it is easy to see why many are wondering what Egypt's governance will look like in the near future.
Some revolutionary supporters and activists are advocating abstention as a form of protest. They believe the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took power when Mubarak was ousted, is propping up their perceived candidate, Shafiq, in the hopes of a counter-revolution. They also fear that the court's decisions have given too much legislative power to the SCAF.
An election official told the Reuters news agency that voting on Saturday had been steady. The election is to conclude Sunday evening, and a result is hoped for within a few hours of the polls closing.
Whoever wins, Egypt's new president will take to the job with a struggling economy, questionable security and the challenge of uniting a divided nation. He will do so without a constitution or parliament in place.
tm/pfd (Reuters, AFP)