Egypt to vote, but will there be democracy?

Joseph Mayton
Bikya Masr
16 June 2012

"CAIRO: Egyptians are heading back to the polls to elect the country’s first post-uprising president on Saturday, but with no parliament, no constitution and a military junta seemingly taking complete control of the country, fears are mounting that the entire democratic process, which began with the now voided parliamentary elections in November, are a sham.

Activists say the two candidates, Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, and ousted and jailed President Hosni Mubarak’s last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, offer little hope to a revolution that has seen change stifled by the military power that took control of the country on February 11, 2011.

“What are we supposed to do, just wait and hope that the situation gets better?” asked Mona Radwan, an activist who said she plans to void her ballot as part of a campaign to not acknowledge either candidate as viable for the future of Egypt.

“It is the right thing to do. We cannot be part of this sham that is looking like a military coup,” she told Bikyamasr.com.

Others agree, with calls for a boycott gaining steam in the past 48 hours since the Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved parliament and allowed Shafiq to continue in the race, ruling that the “Azl” law, or political isolation, which bars former regime politicians from participating in politics, to be unconstitutional.......

Many leading political figures in the country have called Thursday’s moves a “military coup.”

Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh said on Thursday evening the moves by the military junta were an obvious military coup.

Leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, who for months has called the entire election process without a constitution in place was a sham.

On Thursday, after the court threw the future of Egypt into uncertainty, ElBaradei was quick to reiterate the point, while also warning against dictatorship, alluding to a potential Shafiq president.

“Electing president without constitution or parliament means pres has powers unreached by most notorious dictatorships,” he said in response to the court verdict.

And with an election to vote for the country’s first post-revolution president, to give their oath of office to the military, on Saturday and Sunday, uncertainty seems to reign over Egypt at the present moment."