The pre-determined outcome of Egypt’s elections

“After 29 years and 120 days of Mubarak rule, Egyptians went to the polls to elect their fifth president.

Egypt will embrace its fifth president since 1953, that is to say, in 59 years the country has seen only four leaders, not counting Sufi Abu Talep, whose presidency lasted only eight days from Sadat’s assassination to Mubarak’s coming to power, or the ‘acting president,’ Hussain Tantawi, who took over after Mubarak was overthrown. What’s interesting about the 2012 Egyptian presidential election is that this is the first election held without a ‘fixed outcome.’ Not knowing who will win the elections has become more interesting than finally having a civilian as a president.”

The above lines were written exactly two years ago, right before the elections in which Mohamed Morsi was elected president in Egypt. The elections Morsi won had been, in effect, held between “the felool and the new establishment.” The elections that took place in Egypt this week, on the other hand, has clearly been held between “the felool and the old establishment.” What became exceedingly clear in the elections was that Abdel Fattah el-Sisi could not pull off a semblance of elections, not even fixed ones like Mubarak had done. Despite the participation rates shared by the junta, those who have been in the field, following the elections, report that the voter turnout did not even reach the low 20 percent it had been during the Mubarak rule.

There is nothing to be hopeful about an election that was produced by a coup d’état orchestrated with the political support provided by the United States, financing by the Gulf, violence by the Baltajis and legitimacy from...