Will Elections Mean The End Of Tahrir?

My latest on Egypt for New Matilda

Supporters of the Tahrir revolution are scarce in Egypt’s presidential contest. The field is narrowing to former regime cronies or Islamists, writes Cairo correspondent Austin Mackell

In the first half of 2011 New Matilda spoke with a former member of the Obama Campaign team living in Egypt about his predictions for the parliamentary elections. Even early on he knew the Islamists would dominate. He had worked in formal, elite politics. There is something resembling a science to it. Now Egypt seems on track to elect a new president and his predictions may still be relevant. This being said, much of the drama has been removed from the race by the elimination of first one, then another 10 candidates by the Election Authority. Meanwhile, the leaderless hive mind that ran Tahrir so efficiently and impressively on so few resources has not proven as effective at forcing change in the realm of what some would call “real” politics. They barely made a scratch in the parliamentary elections and now, in a contest where name recognition is everything, and experience is demanded, many of the same old creeps have come creeping back…

Read the rest here.