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For those who want to understand why the candidate of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, won, and the candidate from the old regime,
Ahmed Shafiq, lost, the French saying plus ça change, plus c'est la même
chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same) offers a
good explanation. In both substance and style, Ahmed Shafiq, opposed the
changes taking place in Egypt. And while it is understandable, given the
chaos engendered by the revolution, why he opposed the changes and
offered himself as the candidate who wants to bring back a sense of
continuity and order, his style undercut his message and showed not a
candidate who respects the law and plays by the rules but rather as
someone who represents the former privileged ruling elite that did not
abide by the law, or follow regulations.
To support of our analysis, here is one newspaper account of how the two
candidates behaved on voting day:
“The Islamist, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, waited in line
to cast his vote in the Nile Delta town of Zagazig where he used to
teach engineering. The other candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force
general and Mubarak’s last prime minister, cast his ballot in the style
of his former boss. Surrounded by a heavy guard of military and police
officers, he visited a school-turned-polling place in an upscale suburb.
The lines were pushed aside and guards immediately closed the facility
for his private use.”
So there you can see it. Despite Ahmed Shafiq’s rhetoric about law and
order, he was committing an act of lawlessness when he commandeered the
voting booth and turned it to his own private property so he would cast
his vote, instead of either voting before the lines formed, or standing
in line as his rival did, or making some other voting arrangement for
himself. The contrast between the way the two men behaved when they were
voting showed that the Muslim Brotherhood was more respectful of his
fellow citizens and the rule of law than Ahmed Shafiq. The message sent
by Ahmed Shafiq’s behavior was yes there may be change all around him
but he was sticking to the old ways, the ways of different rules for the
rulers and the ruled. Egyptian voters got the message, and that is
probably one of the reasons they rejected him and voted for his
opponent.
Now it remains to be seen if the other candidate genuinely respects the
law and plays by the rules or whether what he did was just a trick to
portray himself as a man of the people in order to win? The answer to
this question will have serious consequences for the future of Egypt.
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