A dud return to democracy

MOST generals who seize power promise to return their country swiftly to the state of democratic civilian rule from which it lapsed owing to the misdemeanours of venal or incompetent politicians. Often, alas, no suitable civilian can be found. So the general swaps his uniform for a business suit, crushes the opposition and proceeds to establish a pliant parliament. Egypt’s strongman, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, is treading this familiar path. But he will do nothing to resolve Egypt’s many problems; he may lead his country into its next crisis.As head of Egypt’s armed forces, Mr Sisi removed the elected Islamist president, Muhammad Morsi, in a coup in 2013. Less than a year later, having passed a new constitution, he resigned from all his military roles and won the presidency with 97% of the vote in an election that none of the main opposition parties contested. Since then he has run the country by decree (the lower house was dissolved in 2012 and the upper one in 2013). Mr Sisi has stamped on the press as well as foreign and domestic NGOs. And he has banned Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, arrested thousands of its supporters, killed hundreds of its demonstrators and sentenced its leaders to death (the executions have not yet been carried out, and may never be).