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Abstract
Much of the hope for Egypt’s transition to be democratic was lost when military seized control of the transition process in 2011. The problem is not that Egypt rushed to elections early. Truth is that elections do not always deliver democratic results; and for Egypt it was no mystery at all. Any party that would have come to power would have wielded its own idea into the process of constitution drafting. For society as such, it was a two-edged sword: not going to polls meant giving Army too much time, which would have been a severe political mistake given its past experience; and going to polls early meant that any party that would come to power can misuse the vote as a referendum for anything they wanted to include or exclude from the constitution.Throughout the transition period, the Egyptians were called to polls over and over again. Since military was to overlook the transition process, it called Egyptian people to polls to approve a series of constitutional amendments in March 2011. This paved a way for the new constitutional order to be built. This phase of election received a mixed response: with Islamists embracing the referendum as it promised a quick transition process. But this did not get along with the idea of non-Islamists. Given the apprehensions that Islamists might hijack the revolution, they rallied behind the idea that the process of writing the constitution should come first.This paper aims to assess how the military and the deep state worked hand in glove to build legitimacy for the military coup that ousted the elected government. The paper will also highlight how the redrafting constitution under military influence will push Egypt further into the clutches of authoritarianism.