Egypt has marked a new chapter in its history with the election of Mohammed Morsy — a candidate from the Muslim Brotherhood — against Ahmed Shafiiq, a former general and the PM under Hosni Mubarak’s regime, to become the president of the Middle Eastern country. Morsy is the new ‘democratic’ face of Egypt, a nation that has seen autocratic rule since it was declared a republic in 1953 with Hosni Mubarak as its last, longest serving dictator/president for 30 years. The loud and violent protests in Tahrir Square that began last year and resulted in the forced removal of Mubarak set the bar for a new kind of Middle East, a region that has known only dictatorship. It showed Mubarak and others like him that the Arabs were now looking for a different leadership where freedom, liberty, choice, dissent and electoral decisions were the prerogatives of the people. However, since then, the Egyptians have become disgruntled; they see that the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt’s military might, used the vacuum created by Mubarak’s absence to consolidate its power over the laws, politics and people of the land without being answerable to the citizenry. The army is completely entrenched in every matter of the state in Egypt, a necessary invasion if it is to enjoy all the power and perks of the industrial-commercial complex it owns, amounting to almost 40 percent of the country’s GDP. Due to these vested interests, for the Tahrir Square protesters to expect anything less than complete military oversight of these elections and the powers granted to this new president would be foolhardy. The military has assumed legislative powers, dissolved Mubarak’s parliament, imposed an interim constitution and is set to oversee the writing of the new constitution. With such an extensive grip over the powers of the state, the powers of the president have been effectively usurped. Morsy does not just have the army to worry about. The country’s minorities and liberals are tense at having the Muslim Brotherhood at the helm of Egypt’s affairs. While the Tahrir Square revolution was advanced by the youth, the country’s left and liberals had little time to prepare an electoral candidate, losing out to the Brotherhood, an outfit that has been waiting decades for its chance at the table. It now looks like Egypt’s stage is set for another round. The people fought for democratic change, to exercise their freedoms and rights. The army has already beat back one round of protesters before these elections and it will not tolerate further dissent. While it is hoped that Morsy will be a moderate and fair president, there is little chance that the military will loosen its grip on power. Only time will tell what is in store for the Middle East’s most anticipated new ‘democracy’. *