Egypt’s hopes betrayed

 By Telegraph View

7:34AM BST 25 Jun 2012

Telegraph View: the liberal, secularist dream of Egypt's revolution has been betrayed by the army and Islamists.

Pity those liberal, secularist Egyptians who drove the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak 16 months ago. Like a nut, they have been cracked between the military, who have dominated the country for the past 60 years, and the Muslim Brotherhood, who claim to be moderate, but whose ultimate goal remains the imposition of sharia.

Yesterday’s announcement of Mohammed Morsi’s victory in the presidential election results from a deal between the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political arm, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Under it, the military will control internal security, defence and foreign policy, leaving domestic matters largely in Mr Morsi’s hands. For the moderates, this means the threat of repression on one hand and Islamicisation on the other.

At least the Brotherhood have a legitimate claim to power, after winning both parliamentary and presidential elections. By contrast, the military – in conjunction with the supreme court – has done all it can to retain its authority. On June 14, the court ruled that the electoral law was unconstitutional and that parliament, elected last year, should be dissolved. The SCAF then arrogated to themselves the right to legislate, and to select the body producing the new constitution.

The best that can be expected is that the rival ambitions of the two sides will ensure mutual constraint. But the reversal of the timetable for democratic transition by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is more likely to produce bitter frustration and possibly chaos, with competing centres of power strangling desperately needed attempts to revive Egypt’s economy. Whatever happens, the hopes raised by those heady weeks in Tahrir Square have been cruelly betrayed.