"The ghosts of the Arab Spring haunt Egypt’s sham election" - Sudarsan Raghavan and Heba Farouk Mahfouz

In Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians once rallied for democracy, a giant television screen played videos of tanks, Egyptian soldiers and speeches by President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. Election billboards of Sissi blanketed the area as his supporters waved national flags and danced to patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers mounted on trucks.