As General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi signals that he plans to seek the Egyptian presidency, Shadi Hamid compares his dictatorial style with that of Mubarak:
Mubarak was your run-of-the-mill autocrat, intent on restricting dissent, but also willing to tolerate a degree of opposition. He had no particular ideology except the preservation of power and, in his latter years, the accumulation of wealth. Sissi evinces no such modesty, hearkening back to the caudillos of Latin America with his populist paternalism. He is a compelling orator, comfortable speaking extemporaneously and with seeming conviction. Just weeks after his rise to power, Sissi, on state television, called for mass rallies to “authorize” him to do what was necessary in the fight against “terrorists.” A personality cult has grown accordingly, with Sissi-themed cupcakes and chocolates and even women’s nightwear featuring the general himself in dark sunglasses. …
Previously coy about his intentions, General Sissi appears to have made a decision. He has been driven by both personal ambition (a voice reportedly told him in a dream: “We will grant you what no one has had before”) and mounting public pressure. One pro-Sissi group filed a lawsuit in an attempt to “force” Sissi to run. Another pro-Sissi group, claiming 12 million signatures in support, would prefer to skip the formality of elections altogether.
Totten expects no good news from Egypt anytime soon:
The idea that Sisi would ever “restore” the democracy that went “off track” with Morsi, as so many activists claimed when he seized power, was always delusional. Egypt had no democracy to begin with. (A single election does not a democracy make.) Nor does the Egyptian military have a democratic cell in its corpus. Egypt’s choice is the same now as it has been for decades: Islamic theocracy or military dictatorship. It can’t be sustainably settled at the ballot box, so it will be fought over instead in the streets.
Peter Oborne looks glumly at this week’s constitutional referendum:
In no way can the referendum be called democratic. There are thousands of posters urging Egyptians to vote yes, but on my visit to Cairo last week I did not witness a single one urging them to vote no. The reason for this emerges from a very worrying report from Human Rights Watch out today. Campaigners against the constitution are being arrested and charged with “attempting to overthrow the regime”. The main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been declared (on no evidence) a terrorist organisation. There are reports today that the political party Strong Egypt, which claims to be liberal, has been forced to suspend its no campaign because of the recent arrests. Meanwhile, General Sisi says that a successful vote this week will license him to run for the presidency in a poll later this year. This is very sinister. As Bruce Riedel powerfully points out here, the coup d’état which restored military rule in Egypt is being seen by al Qaeda as validation of their murderous ideology.
The Dish 