AP | JORDAN TIMES
CAIRO — Sixty years after their country came under military dictatorship, Egyptians are for the first time freely electing their president.
The voting that begins Wednesday is the greatest prize won by the multitudes who took to the streets to overthrow unpopular Hosni Mubarak in the string of people-power uprisings that upended the Middle East in last year’s Arab Spring.
It is also a moment of truth for this most populous Arab republic, determining whether power stays in the hands of the secular elite tied to the old regime or makes a momentous shift to the long-suppressed Islamists, with all the implications that such a change may have for relations with the US and the Middle East peace effort.
Then again, most of the 50 million eligible voters will probably be looking for more modest returns — chiefly some peace and quiet after more than a year of turmoil, bloody protests, a falling economy and rising crime.
Whoever wins, “I want him to see to the security and safety problem first,” said Abdel Rahman Shaker, a 55-year-old private security guard in Cairo.
“If there is security, then we will have a better economy and production. I am looking out for my kids. I am working now, but we want a better life for our kids.”
However, the new chapter to be opened by this election is likely to be just as tumultuous, facing contentious issues that no one has dealt with since Mubarak’s fall: the economy, the role of Islam, the future of democracy, the relationship with the US, Egypt’s long-time backer, and the fate of the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
Egypt mirrors the chaotic trajectories that the Arab Spring revolts have taken after an initial burst of optimism that long repressed populations across the region could replace dictators with democracy.
The transition in Tunisia, the first nation to rise up in late 2010, has been the smoothest, with elections and a start to writing a new constitution.
Post-Qadhafi Libya is torn among militias.
Yemen’s leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, stepped down earlier this year but remains a shadow power. Syria has turned into a bloodbath. Bahrain, a vital US ally and home to the US navy in the region, still suffers spasms of sectarian violence.
In Egypt itself, the 15 months since Mubarak’s ouster have been defined by deadly street clashes with protesters whose demands range from minority Christian rights through the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to the departure from power of the generals who have run the country since Mubarak stepped down.