The two top contenders for this weekend's presidential runoff are Marshall Ahmed Shafiq, who served as prime minister until Mubarak's final hours in office, and Mohamed Morsi, a US-educated scientist and Muslim Brotherhood member who was little known to the public until he ended up at the center of the campaign. Neither man stands much chance of uniting the country, and if they're not careful, they may even tear it apart.

In a quote to the Egyptian daily al-Ahram, Shafiq hailed Mubarak's sentencing as proof that "no one is above the law," in hopes of demonstrating his impartiality toward the military in which he served, while Morsi promised to keep Mubarak in jail "for eternity," regardless of the court's ruling.

If Shafiq wins the presidency, some revolutionaries say they would risk starting a second revolution. In a series of coordinated actions, unknown protesters have attacked several of his campaign offices and set one of them ablaze, and officials fear worse to come.