The election of Egypt's former military chief to the nation's presidency may be remembered for its central irony: He won in a historic landslide - only to shatter his image of invulnerability in the process. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's win was never in doubt, but what the retired 59-year-old field marshal wanted was an overwhelming turnout that would accord legitimacy to his July ouster of Egypt's first freely elected president - the Islamist Mohammed Morsi - and show critics at home and abroad that his action reflected the will of the people. In his last interview before polls opened, he exuberantly told Egyptians he wanted more than 40 million of the nearly 54 million registered voters to turn out. The reality was far more tepid.
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