The Muslim Brotherhood lost substantial ground between Egypt’s general and presidential elections round one. The emergence of the two frontrunners, the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and former PM Ahmed Shafiq, has cast the original revolutionaries and pro-democracy elements onto the sidelines.

The Egyptian military council quelled this week's riots against its rule by drawing the mainstream political parties and presidential contenders into its corner and away from the protesters by the threat of postponing the general elections they are pinning their hopes on.

The protests in Cairo and other Egyptian cities do not count as the country's second revolution this year. The angry masses battling police in Cairo's Tahrir Square and the centers of Alexandria, Ismailia and Port Said for four days are not backed by any serious political entity, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which Tuesday, Nov. 22 threw in their lot with the military council. So will the protesters be satisfied with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi's promise of a presidential election in mid-2012? Not so far.