A. M. VASILIEV Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences A. V. KOROTAEV Doctor of Historical Sciences L. M. ISAEV Higher School of Economics Keywords: Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Hamdeen Sabahi, army, elections, political processes From May 26 to 28, 2014, Egypt held its second presidential election in the last two years. After the events of June 30, 2013, the highest post in the country was again vacant. The military established control over the political process, and Adly Mansour, the chairman of the Constitutional Court, became the interim head of state. Only two candidates competed for the presidency: former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the leader of the Egyptian moderate left from the Egyptian Popular Movement (at-Tayyar al-sha'biy al-Misri) Hamdeen Sabahi, who was considered a "Nasserist". The very sparse list of candidates in the current election campaign is in sharp contrast to the 2012 elections. At that time, more than 10 candidates put up their candidacies, and at least five of them - Mohammed Morsi, Ahmed Shafiq, Amr Moussa, Hamdine Sabahi and Abdel Munim Aboul-Futuh-seemed to be quite strong and had a high chance of success in the election race. Yes, and everything was decided at the very last moment, when in the second round Ahmed Shafiq did not have enough 2% of the vote to defeat Mohammed Morsi. The situation has changed radically. The army candidate al-Sisi had no de facto competitors in the May 2014 elections. Amr Moussa, Muhammad al-Baradei, Abdel Munim Aboul-Futuh, Ahmed Shafiq and other serious candidates refused to participate in the presidential race, and the leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement lost this opportunity altogether. The fall of the Morsi regime was natural. Already in the first months of his rule, Morsi was faced with the need to pursue an extremely unpopular policy to overcome the socio-economic crisis in the country. A signal of ... Read more