In Cairo, as Historic Vote Nears, Excitement Mixed With Wariness

Arriving in Cairo after a two-year hiatus, one feels things have dramatically changed: obviously a revolution happened and a historic poll is about to take place. And it doesn’t take long to realize it on the ground.

Take the airport: several camera tripods, two large boxes with large Reuters stickers slapped on top, a senior CNN correspondent waiting at passport control and five heavily locked crates marked “Carter Center” rolling on the luggage conveyor belt, signaling the arrival of election observers. Take the press center where accreditations to cover the election are delivered: a machine gun-wielding soldier is posted right in the midst of government employees and queuing foreign correspondents. Is the soldier here to protect us? No, the press center is located on the first floor of the national television building — a prime target in every revolution.

Then come the usual cab driver conversations: all about the revolution that was and the election that will be in a few days’ time. A mixed bag of excitement and concern over the future: that Mubarak’s ouster was long-overdue and good riddance, that the poll could be rigged, that the economy won’t improve. Talking to people, I hear diverging and often contradictory analyses. That is probably a good sign in what could emerge as a fledging democracy past the first openly contested — and let’s hope free and fair — election in the country’s history.

Some say that Ahmed Shafiq actually stands a fair chance even though he belongs to the much-reviled Mubarak’s era, during which he briefly served as prime minister. Because he is a former senior commander of the Egyptian air forces he somehow inspires trust to those who favor security and stability. And precisely because he is former military man, his many detractors fear he could be secretly supported by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which could in turn rig the election.