Following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February last year, the country has witnessed a dramatic increase in crime. Egypt is still suffering from a kind of chaos that occurred in Port Said. In fact Port Said is still in mourning three weeks after the deaths of more than 70 Al-Ahli fans at a football match in the city.

Abul Fotouh, a former member of  the Muslim Brother-hood, was expelled from the Brotherhood for putting up his candidacy in defiance of the organization decision not to field its own candidate. The group’s move was meant to send a message to ease concern abroad about the real intentions of Islamists.

Egypt's first elections after the ouster of the Mubarak, elected the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party as the biggest bloc in Parliament, followed by the Salafist Nour Party. There is also the moderate Islamist Wasat Party, dissidents from Brotherhood, in the fourth place in the Parliament. There are fears among liberal and secularist group that the new constitution to be drafted later may push for an Islamist agenda.

The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, has been assuring the wider public of their agenda. Foreign relations secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party in Alexandria, Mohammed Sudan was quoted by different media outlets as saying that Muslim Brotherhood is “the most moderate political group in the Islamic world.” According to him, the groups would surely “guarantee everyone his or her citizenship rights, regardless of faith."

Abul Fotouh enjoyed the backing of important and influential figures such as Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi. The latter described him as the a leading candidate in the next elections who will run against Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and a former secretary-general of the Arab League and widely seen as a liberal. The attack took place just two weeks before candidates register to run for elections to be held in June.

The delay of confirming the date of presidential elections suggests that there may be a behind-the-scene row over the timing of returning to civilian rule. The head of the Supreme Presidential Election Committee Judge Farouk Sultan told the Nile News Channel that the delay was caused by the need to organize the vote of Egyptian expatriates. He added that Foreign Ministry has asked for more time to finish the task at hand. The long-awaited Egyptian presidential elections will take place in the first week of June 2012 amid mounting pressure on the military council to cede power to civilian rule. Presidential elections will be held under the new rules approved in last year’s referendum and according to which presidents can only be elected to two consecutive four-year term.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Local Development Mohammed Attiya told the state-owned Al-Ahram daily that presidential hopefuls will have to register their candidacy in March. Actually they have three weeks, starting March 10,  to register their candidacy. He added that they will have 45 days for campaigning.  In fact, there have been some attempts to bring forward the date of elections. These attempts came amid the spread of rallies demanding the ouster of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Many Egyptians accused the SCAF of mismanagement of transition, stifling freedoms, and of human rights violations.

The SCAF has been subject to much debate recently as reports talk about the inevitability of the SCAF to retain some power even after the transition. The military in Egypt is very important as it has played a prominent role in Egyptian politics since the 1952 revolution. All presidents since the revolution have emerged from the military. The image of SCAF has undergone some damage recently. Initially, it was seen as the linchpin for peaceful transition to democracy. While liberals wanted the military to be a hedge against Islamist power, Islamist on their part thought of the military as the best guarantee to steer the country to parliamentarian election that they were poised to win. Interestingly, the American administration urged the military to run the country hoping that it will be the partner needed to help secure the United States’ interests.

The pro-democratic forces are still not happy with the military council. In an article published by Huffington Post on Feb. 22, Alla Al-Aswany, a prominent Egyptian novelists said, “We are discovering that rule by the mili-tary council is a carbon copy of Mubarak's regime. Mu-barak's aim was to stay in power and ensure that his son succeeded him. Although the military council was happy to end this succession plan and declare itself protector of the revolution, everything it has done in the past year has been to contain and abort the revolution and change it into a mere coup. The ruler may have changed but the system remains as it was.”

Now, elections will take place in June. With Mohammed El-Baradei pulling out of the race to become Egypt’s next president, the contest will be be-tween Islamists and other candidates closer to outgoing regime. There are three Islamist figures who stepped in the ring: Abul Fotouh, Mohammad Salim Al-Awa, an Egyptian Islamist thinker, and Hazem Salah Abu Ismael, a Cairo University law school graduate. On the other hand, there are two representing the old regime: Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister.

So far, contenders have been attacking each other in their bid to appeal to the public. Unscientific polls reveal that the Islamist candidates are in the front. While it is too early to judge who will be in the driving seat after elections, it is obvious that the contest is going to be tough given that this will be the first time in history for Egyptians to resort to the ballot boxes to decide who will be the president.