The sole candidate running against Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has had two showcase campaign rallies in downtown Cairo.
The first was a disaster. No one showed up except a few campaign workers.
The second was a slight improvement: 30 people attended. They held banners and chanted slogans, though the chants weren't exactly resounding victory cries for their candidate, an almost unknown politician named Moussa Mustafa Moussa.
They shouted: "Whether Moussa wins or al-Sisi wins, either is our president!"
There's no question the general-turned-president al-Sisi will win a second four-year term. But the March 26-28 election will likely be remembered as the event that signaled Egypt's break with what pretense it had left of democratic rule, seven years after a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the name of democracy.