The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt. What a title.

Egypt is, after all, the most populous and historically the most dominant country in the Arab world.

But the man who wins Egypt’s first ‘free’ presidential election will not be able to rest on his laurels, his electoral vote or his title. In reality he will probably need a miracle – as one of his country’s older authors Mohammed al-Heykal recently said.

The election that begins today, but ends in a second round in mid-June, will attract a lot of attention.

Will Egyptians choose an Islamist or a secular leader to cure their impoverished society? Perhaps more importantly: Will the president be free at all, or will he be shackled to the military?

While the president will have dignity - simply by representing the will of the Egyptians - he may also wake up handcuffed if the military is not prepared to submit to the will of the president and Parliament.

The military will undoubtedly excuse itself for its continued dominance and refusal to be subjected to public scrutiny of its finances and privileges. It will argue, in an assertion that Egyptians know only too well, that the country needs stability.

But the president will have to insist that economic and social development in Egypt is impossible unless the military accepts that the revolution on Tahrir Square last year handed victory to democracy.

The military dictatorship has had its chance for six decades. And in its self-created quagmire of economic neglect, corruption and negative social development it has failed abysmally.

Egyptians desperately need a new democracy to take root and for the president and popularly elected Parliament in Cairo to give them hope for a better future.

They immediately require employment, housing and freedom. They also crave a new democratic constitution and the development of a new civil society in which they can choose to trust their leaders, or replace them. That will require more than one vote.

The president is being elected in grotesque circumstances, without knowing his powers or future legal position.

But his real strength will lie in his ability to identify with the well-founded frustrations of his people. His task will be to convert this exasperation into the completion of a political revolution that has started, but is far from ended.

aj

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