NY Times on the pre-election atmosphere in Egypt

An informative piece, HERE.

I’m becoming more and more excited about the election as time goes by (unfortunately, I will be out of Egypt on a brief vacation that was scheduled before I realized when the election would be, and then I will be visiting family in theU.S. and Canada at the time of the june runoff; I’d like to see one of the two rounds up close, but as fate had it, I will not).

Every time I ride in a Cairo taxi these days, I only wait a couple of minutes before asking, in the tones of an utterly clueless visitor, who the next President will be. What I really want to know, of course, is who each driver personally favors, but I pitch the question in more impersonal, factual form as an invitation to the expression of personal views. Some drivers still don’t want to touch the question, but many warm to the question with enthusiasm, as if they were discussing their favorite football team. But unlike with football teams, they seem to be going through a more falsifiable decision-making process with the candidates, with many Egyptians I know having already changed their minds on the basis of speeches and platforms: exactly how democracy is supposed to work. It’s quite reassuring to watch how seriously everyone is taking this election.

This is Egypt’s first Presidential election since… I guess since the dawn of history. The Pharaohs obviously never stood for election, nor did any of the Imperial foreign occupiers of Egypt. And Mubarak’s elections were nothing but orchestrated shams that often included bearded Islamists being beaten in the polling lines to scare them away. Perhaps the most cynical thing Mubarak ever said was after the ludicrous December 2010 elections, just prior to the Revolution, in which all parties other than Mubarak’s NDP received close to zero seats in parliament. Mubarak’s response when asked about this? “As the head of the NDP, I am of course very happy. But as an Egyptian, I am sad that the other parties could not do better.” The laughter by Egyptians in response to that statement was worth recording.

In any case, how could you not be happy that a people who have endured 5,000-6,000 years of having both domestic and foreign rulers imposed upon them finally get a chance to choose their own leader? It’s heartwarming in the most basic, straightforward sense. No wonder there’s so much hope and enthusiasm here.

My taxi driver this morning was an Ahmed Shafik fan. Everyone I’ve met so far who supports Shafik is a Coptic Christian, so perhaps my driver today was a Copt as well. They seem to trust him, for whatever reason, and you can’t blame the Copts for voting for safety first at a time like this. Their legitimate protest march last fall ended up with their being the victims of a cruel massacre on the streets of Cairo, more or less cheered on by state TV. In fact, quite a number of Copts have emigrated outright since the Revolution. There’s a chance that someone with “Brotherhood” or “ex-Brotherhood” on their c.v. will be the next President, and I wouldn’t be too happy about that either if I were an Egyptian Christian.

That said, I can’t support Shafik in the least. He was Mubarak’s Prime Minister during the Revolution, after all. If he didn’t actively participate in shooting live ammunition at protestors, organizing the Battle of the Camel, etc., then he at least looked the other way while his mates at the Cabinet table were planning it. He never resigned in protest, but gave his endorsement to Mubarak by serving as Prime Minister just at the moment when Mubarak proved himself to be at his worst by beating and killing peaceful protestors by the score.

Shafik is probably also the candidate that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces wants to win, and I see no reason to give them what they want. The Army is severely tarnished by the events of the past year in the eyes of many, including my own eyes.