For the next and final round of presidential elections, Egyptians are being asked to choose between an Islamic or military dictatorship both claiming legitimacy through the ballot box. Egypt may be following one set of democratic procedures, but it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a transition to democracy, irrespective of who becomes the next President.
Elections are only one element of democracy, and to reduce democratic practice to what happens at the polling station is highly problematic.
We need to ask ourselves what the conditions are that have influenced people’s choices?
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