Egyptian elections

For Egypt, the Arab Spring was a moment of unifying beauty. The first protest against the subsiding regime of Hosni Mubarak on the 25th January 2011 saw tens of thousands of citizens seize the potential for change and take to the streets of Cairo.

The world watched as demonstrations turned to protests, protests to street battles and street battles to complete revolution. In the same breath, a regime which had survived the plethora of Middle Eastern geopolitical fluxes and stimuli for thirty years moved from stable to worried, worried to desperate and desperate to overthrown. They deserve to bask in the warm North African sun of their achievements, yet domestic and Western commentators are wracked by anxiety and portending doom.

The first round of the presidential elections caused a quiet discomfort for many. In a political landscape levelled by the Arab Spring, there was a hope that the nation would embrace a “unifying” middle ground.

These hopes were fittingly ignored when the central Amr Moussa, the former head of the Arab League, was firmly rejected by voters in the first round of elections. Whilst diplomatic gravitas and neoliberal economic policies may be what the West wanted, the people thought differently.

Yet considering these are the same people who recently removed the irremovable regime, there was perhaps a shocking naivety in expecting Egyptians to be content with an inoffensive candidate. Ultimately, the nation is still caught in the throes of revolution and its future will be shaped by a candidate who excites these feelings and projects them onto domestic policy.

Whilst the next president will certainly stir feelings amongst the voting population, that is the one and only certainty in this election. The first round of voting eliminated candidates from across the political spectrum as well as those who sit outside of it.

Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing executive who organised resistance online before disappearing into custody, failed to keep this momentum, and Professor Abdallah al-Ashal, despite his support for coalition and working with all political parties, could not captivate the voters with political pleasantries and the rather vague declaration that he will “look where the national interests lie and then I follow them.”

Voters not only rejected these more atypical political figures, they’ve also collectively turned their back on some of the candidates who have worked desperately to align themselves to certain political modes of thought. Hamdin Sabbahi, a propagator of the right-wing ideology Nasserism, showed that this election is about nation, not nationalism. His fierce condemnation of the former regime and strong anti-Israel position may have led to electoral success if the revolution did not happen, but in the post-revolutionary sphere he has failed to adapt and taper them to a voter more in tune with nuanced political ideas.

With the second round of voting due later this month, the people have a difficult decision to make. Do they vote for Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, key orchestrators of the revolution? Or do they vote for Ahmed Shfiq, a remnant of the old Mubarak regime who has rather confusingly stated he would quash any further protests with the military but promises to keep the demonised Muslim Brotherhood in check?

The complete polarisation of these candidates is, in the long run, immaterial. The very fact that the people have had the opportunity to create this situation is something to be celebrated. To apply a binary that can’t possibly encompass the complexities of these elections, whether the nation makes the “right” or “wrong” choice is irrelevant – these elections represent their fabled reward after a disfiguring struggle.

The Egyptian nation is not drowning in chaos nor is it paralysed by contrasting possibilities; they are plotting a unique path down a revolutionary road and the very opportunity itself is a thing of staggering beauty.