With the results of Egypt's presidential run-off expected today, the mood is anxious. The outcome of the June 16-17 vote was to have been officially announced on Thursday but investigations into alleged vote rigging forced a postponement. It's not as if Egypt never had a president. It has not had one since Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down 16 months ago; in his stead have been the armed forces. The problem that has nerves jangled is that the two rivals are claiming that their respective tallies of ballots make their man the winner. As such, an announcement either way by the election commission will raise protests, and could instigate violence, from the losing side. The elections are not the sole reason for the thick tension in the air. The ruling military council last week issued several decrees that apparently allows it to maintain a grip on power in what many consider a last-minute drive by the generals to consolidate as much power as they can before the July 1 deadline approaches for the transfer of power from the armed forces to a civilian government. The officers are, for instance, to replace the 100-member panel selected by parliament to draft a new constitution. The Supreme Court last week dissolved the five-month-old parliament whose majority Islamists have since been defying the scrapping of the legislature as illegal. Thus the military will now control the drafting of a new constitution, the third major blow in a week to hopes for a democratic transition that arose from last year's uprising. Last week, the military gave itself broad powers to arrest civilians even on minor offenses such as traffic violations. Topping it off, the military council issued another decree forming a new national defense council made up of 11 senior military commanders as well as the president. Though the council's mandate was not specified, it appears to be another step towards cementing the role of the military as the highest authority over national security policy. It is unfortunate that the elections are being overshadowed by such transitional confusion, for they are truly historic. If Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood is confirmed president, he would be the first Islamist head of state of Egypt and the first civilian after four presidents from the military - turnarounds in Egyptian politics as stunning as the wave of pro-democracy uprisings that swept Egypt and many other Middle East countries starting last year. A win by his rival Ahmed Shafiq would be just as remarkable. A former air force commander and ex-prime minister, Shafiq's very history is an extension of the Mubarak regime that the revolution toppled. That somebody from that era is not only still standing but vying for the presidency means to many that neither the revolution nor those who launched it have gotten very far. It is not clear who will rule Egypt and who the real leaders will be. But whatever the result, it must be remembered that the elections were the freest and fairest that the Egyptian people, long used to vote rigging, have ever had.
