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I think that there are two sides to this story. Isn't it Islamists versus non-islamists? If the MB won the election democratically, why weren't they supported by everyone? If there is another election, and the Non-Islamists get into power, what's to stop the other side protesting, and ousting the next President?

Hi stevej1,
First I wanna thank you for participation.

Firstly, I want to explain to you what happened during that election then I will be able to answer your question and explain situation in Egypt.

1- During the presidential election there were 13 nominees in the first round. Second round was between the two highest nominees:
A- Mohamed Morsi (5 Millions votes) - the representative of MB.
B- Ahmed Shafeek (5 Millions votes)- an individual, and also was the Prime Minister of the government of the previous regime.

2- As the revolution of 2011 was against the ex-president Mobarak regime, therefore, many of the Egyptian people voted against Ahmed Shafeek and voted for Morsi. They did that as they thought if Ahmed Shafeek became the president it will be a reborn of the previous regime.

3- The final result of such election was almost 12 Millions voted for Ahmed Shafeek against 13 Millions voted for Moris. As you can see these are very close numbers, which give an indication that people didn't vote for Mori as a main choice but they voted for him as there was no other choice.
I mean if there was any other nominee than Shafeek he would be the president and not Morsi.


Now the answer of your question is included in the following points:

1- Within Morsi's electoral program, he stated that he and his Islamist political party "Freedom and Justice", have a pre-prepared plan called "Renaissance Project" concerning the improvement of the country from every way. He stated literally that "exatly within his first 100 days people will observe a dramatic improvement in the economy, traffic jams, incomes,....etc.". Of course a complete improvement within 100 days duration doesn't make any sense.

2- After Mori became the president he assigned his assistants, the whole government, and provinces’ governors from his party or other Islamic parties. He excluded all other political parties from sharing in the country’s decision.

3- Regarding the constitution, he formed a special committee most of it of Islamic background, they set a new constitution which serve all MB targets rather than serving Egypt. 

4- Moreover, he was not the actual ruler of the country, as he kept his active MB membership and wasn't taking any decision without the blessing of MB headquarter.

5- Several major problems popped out like:  lack of fuel (it went to wait for a line of 2hrs to get your car tank filled), lack of electricity (it was disconnected every day for at least 4 hrs for every neighborhood- load shedding), all prices went up like crazy, lack of security in streets everywhere , ….etc.

6- During the past year (first year of Morsi’s presidential period) Egyptian people noticed that he didn't satisfy any of his promises. Therefore, they protested several times against him and gave warnings but he didn't listen.

7- Finally on June 30th, the crowd went out to tell him "GO AWAY WE DON't WATNT YOU" and the army took the people side. This is why we Egyptians say that it is not a military coup. This is a second wave of OUR BRAVE 2011 REVOLUTION and protected by OUR ARMY.

8- We have to admit that people are the main power who grant to /take away the authority to the president. This is the real "Democracy". I believe that the president work for the people not above the people.
So if another president "who will be also elected",  but  he didn’t satisfy his promises or proceeded in a non-democratic way "went off track" the crowd have all the rights to protest against him and simply get rid of him.

MO 2013,
Thanks for your reply. I only say the following from a distance:
Points 1, 2 and 3 make a lot of sense, thank you. But, if you are looking for a new beginning, who ever 'used to be a part of something', you will never elect anyone.
Points 4 - 9. Welcome to democracy. Everyone will say whatever it takes to be elected, and then will find a reason not to do it. Every Government in the History of the World has done it. 'Election Promises' become something that you take into account when you are voting.
Points 10 - 11. This will happen over and over again, then.

stevej1,
I apologize that made some changes on my previous reply to make it more reasonable.

Please notice that Egypt didn't have a real democracy ever bofore.

So the revolution of 2011 and the second wave of it in 2013, was "a must" to tell everybody (I mean all the members of the political game in Egypt) that crowd is the source of all authorities.

Although that it was a mistake to elect someone to escape from someone else but please understand that people were new to such an impressive experience and this is why they really believed whatever was told "Just election promises".

On the other hand, as we are in Egypt looking for a new beginning who ever 'used to be a part of something' is welcome to be elected NO DESCRIMINATION OR EXCLUSION. BUT after this great revolution,who will be nominated will have to think thounds of time about what he can really do for people before nomination. People really understood there mistake and will never repeat it, who ever deserve to be elected will win.

Moreover, he will also think seriously "again and again" before he goes off-track after being elected.

Hi MO2013,

I don't think that there is any such thing as a country that has a "true democracy" as you put it. Especially a country that has an electoral system for a president based on elimination of popular candidates in a succession or "rounds". You always end up with a president who claims to have a clear majority of votes, but those votes clearly do not reflect the desires of the public, just reflect that they chose the lesser of two evils. It's exactly the same here in Brazil. The system itself if flawed and simply does not work. The only thing that kind of system produces is a dictatorship in disguise. It is a system that serves only to fool the citizens into believing that they have a democracy, a voice because after all they can vote! There vote actually has no meaning whatsoever in such a system, not in Egypt and not in any other place in the world. The system is so popular among politicians simply because it leads to absolute power, which can easily be abused; it also facilitates political corruption as we see here in Brazil. It doesn't even need to be hidden since the people are powerless to do anything to stop it. It is systemic.

I was born and raised in Canada and there the government is a parliamentary system. The fact is that the Prime Minister is NOT the head of state, that is the Prime Minister and Parliament together. The PM is simply the figurehead and can do nothing by himself or herself. Actually the Prime Minister is not even elected as Prime Minister, just the leader of the political party that has been voted the most seats in the Parliament. (However he/she must be elected as a Member of Parliament).

In the parliamentary system nobody has absolute power except the people. Everything the government does must be done by consensus even if a particular party has a majority they still can be powerless if the other parties join together to oppose some issue and bring down the government. Even the parliamentary system is not a guarantee of TRUE DEMOCRACY, but it's sure a lot closer than any other system.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Parliamentary governments aren't so great.  The head of government has to be a member of the legislature.  There is no separation of powers.