Egypt’s 77-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak, announced on Thursday that he would seek another six-year term in September, when the country holds presidential elections that for the first time permit more than one candidate.
Mubarak, who has ruled the country under a state of emergency for almost a quarter of a century, promised to scrap the emergency laws and curb his own powers if re-elected.
In the face of pressure for reform from both Washington and demonstrators at home, he agreed this year to multi-candidate elections — but the new rules make it difficult for opposition candidates to stand without approval from the president’s National Democratic party, which dominates Parliament.
Most other parties have said they will not field candidates because they regard the electoral rules as unfair.
So far, the most likely challenger is Ayman Nour, leader of the al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, who told news agencies on Thursday: ”It’s sad that President Mubarak is now talking about reforming in six years all that he has destroyed in the past 24 years.”
Nour, who has experienced various forms of harassment since announcing his presidential ambitions, is on trial for forgery, though hearings have been adjourned until after the election.
He is accused of forging signatures in order to register al-Ghad as a political party, and maintains that the charges have been trumped up.
Mubarak’s victory is almost a foregone conclusion but US President George Bush has been urging him to set an example for the region by holding ”as free and fair elections as possible”.
In a phone call last month, Bush reportedly told him: ”People ought to be allowed to vote without being intimidated, people ought to be allowed to be on TV, and if the government owns the TV, they need to allow the opposition on TV; people ought to be allowed to carry signs and express their pleasure or displeasure.”
Washington is also pressing for international monitoring of the election — an idea the Egyptian government has so far resisted on grounds of national sovereignty.
Egyptian elections are normally accompanied by blatant ballot rigging.
On previous occasions security forces have kept voters away from polling stations in areas where opposition parties were known to have strong support.
”It’s in some ways a farce,” said Maha Azzam, a Middle East expert at Chatham House in London. ”In a sense the whole process has been undermined from the start. There isn’t any real sense of political reform … ”
Mubarak chose to announce his candidacy during a speech at the high school in Menoufeya province where he was educated in the 1940s.
He also called for an extraordinary Arab summit to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh next Wednesday to discuss ”worrisome developments”, including those in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
A summit there would go some way toward restoring the resort’s image after the bomb attacks last weekend and would also give Mubarak an opportunity to play the role of international statesman in the run-up to his re-election.
It is unclear how many Arab leaders would attend or what the meeting could achieve.
Egypt is helping to smooth the way for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and Azzam suggested that the summit might be viewed as a message from Mubarak to the US to say he is ”worth something regionally” but does not want to be pushed too hard on political reform. – Guardian Unlimited Â