A security member and a voter near a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, on March 28, 2018. Picture by Ahmed Gomaa/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images. All rights reserved.
The results of the Egyptian elections are hardly shocking. Sisi has won his electoral "battle" with another pro-Sisi supporter popularly called "Moussa Something Moussa". The hyper nationalistic pro-Sisi musical vans and the desperate attempt to get voters to the polling booths (using monetary rewards, threats and physical abuse) were also hardly shocking. Neither was it particularly shocking to note that some US Congress men and women had knowingly or unknowingly become part of the pro-Sisi propaganda apparatus when they danced at the polling stations. Nor was the relative low turn out, particularly amongst youth, shocking.
Yet, in a different way, the elections in Egypt were shocking. Shocking and most of all absurd because of the sheer lack of political content, lack of electoral choice and lack of freedom of expression. Even in the always noisy capital Cairo, it is eerily quiet. There is no political sound or whisper. Rather, repressive political silence permeates Egypt’s busy streets in a stifling and choking manner. Political leaders and electoral candidates were arrested, and placed under house arrest or simply disappeared. Many political activists fled the country and others have a dark cloud hanging above them with therein the anxious question “when will it be my turn? When will I be arrested and tortured? When will I disappear”.
