Egypt faces tough choice in election

Egypt's first free presidential election is finally taking shape. This very important poll will elect the country's next leader who will have the very difficult task of implementing tough economic reforms in order to restore the country to some prosperity, which will certainly not be popular, and the whole country remembers Egypt's long history of riots whenever subsidies on basic foodstuffs have been reduced.

But in addition to coping with the deep economic malaise, the new president will also have to hold the ring between a parliament dominated by Islamists and the armed forces with their legacy powers still intact. Both sides have very different visions of where they see Egypt going in the future, and there is a genuine risk and the new presidency will be powerless between these two large forces, despite the office's historic authority.

Two days ago, a judicial panel upheld the disqualification of 10 candidates, a few of whom were potential front runners. However, the departure of ex-spy chief Omar Sulaiman and the Muslim Brotherhood's leader Khairat Al Shater, as well as ultraconservative Salafist, Hazem Abu Esmail, will have cheered the secular protesters who carried on the Arab Spring in Tahrir Square, although they will regret the disqualification of liberal politician Ayman Nour.

The beneficiaries of the trimmed list of candidates will be Amr Mousa, a former Arab League chief and former Egyptian Foreign Minister, Abdul Moneim Abu Al Fotouh, an independent Islamist who broke away from the Muslim Brotherhood to stand for the presidency; and the not very inspiring former prime minister Ahmad Shafiq.

The Muslim Brotherhood now has a real difficulty since it has to decide between the more likely course of action to support their back-up candidate, Mohammad Mursi, despite his lack of charisma, or take the less likely route and endorse their former colleague Abu Al Fotouh, despite his desertion of the party.