Will Egypt get a second chance at democracy?

[مستر محمد سلام]

Will Egypt get a second chance at democracy?

That’s what the world is asking, a week after Egypt’s military forced President Mohamed Morsy from office, after a year of what the opposition called tyrannical governance.

“Second chances are rare in any country,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said in Cairo on Monday, after meeting with the interim leader, Adly Mansour.

Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Frank Wisner, the former U.S. envoy to Egypt, said that Egypt should seize the opportunity.

“[It’s] a second chance,” he said. “One worth achieving, and there’s a chance Egypt can do it.

Last week, Egypt’s acting foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, said that there would be a “maximum of six to seven months” before new presidential elections are held.

“It’s an adventuresome goal, but it’s not impossible,” Wisner said in reaction. “Much of the construction has already been written, Egypt has a very sophisticated election machinery.”

What is critical between now and then, Wisner said, was consensus-building.

“I can’t predict what the Muslim Brothers will do,” he said. “I know they are being called upon to join. But it is an opportunity for Egypt to bind up its wounds and come together.”