Fatemah Farag finds that the elections brought in not just a president A little over six million votes in a country of over 70 million may not seem like much but the national press has hailed the success of presidential candidate Hosni Mubarak as a decisive hallmark of democracy. And their banners on Saturday suffered from unimaginative monotony: "Mubarak is the first elected president of Egypt" cried Al-Ahram . Akhbar Al-Youm screamed "Mubarak... the first elected president in the history of Egypt". Al-Akhbar Editor-in-Chief Momtaz El-Qot described the victory as follows: "Today, Egypt announces to the whole world that it is capable of continuing on the road of its glory and that it is capable of protecting its will and pride." The day before and pre-empting the final victory announcement Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Osama Saraya said, "congratulating Mubarak on the success of the most prominent political experiment in our history created by his initiative is no less important than congratulating him on the choice of his people of him." Etc. However, the independent and opposition press was not as enthusiastic. Starting Friday, Al-Wafd led with news of electoral violations, announcing on Saturday that the voter's lists were faulty and state institutions were bias. In the same issue, Abbas El-Tarabili laments, "these are not the elections we expected. We did not expect the violations to reach such heights," adding, "democracy has lost. The NDP candidate won but the loser is the people, and the people will pay a high price [for their loss]." Al-Ghad also took issue with electoral violations, its banner announcing on 12 September that Mubarak won the elections through forgery and calling for a repeat. While highlighting low voter turnout, Al-Arabi announced the elections null and void. In Sawt Al-Umma on 12 September Wael El-Ibrashi describes 7 September as the day that "shook the legitimacy of the regime. The regime failed to persuade the people that we are facing real presidential elections and so the majority did not participate. And in the coming weeks the regime will face the curse of the people because it will be incapable of meeting its electoral promises." In Al-Masri Al-Youm Magdi Mehanna points out that the difference between the results of this presidential elections and the previous presidential referendums is a mere 10 per cent give or take. "So why all the headache? And all this screaming and noise," he wonders. "Why not just go back to the referendum system since the referendum culture remains that which is predominant. And the campaign of the NDP candidate was managed like a referendum, [constantly] crossing the lines between state and party." And Ibrahim Eissa in the above mentioned issue of Sawt Al-Umma says, "the only difference between what happened this time and what happened the four other times is that the Ministry of Interior used to be the one that did the forging but this time it was the Ministry of Justice. Previously, Safwat El-Sherif oversaw the forgery; this time it was Gamal Mubarak. They lie and believe themselves." But in Al-Ahram on 11 September Anis Mansour says we should not be dissuaded by the critical things people are saying regarding the presidential elections. "Do not care and I do not care, nor am I shaken by what is said regarding the great choice of the Egyptian people. Those who are hysterical on the streets, the radio and the Internet do not know who we were 50 years ago." And while the press was concerned with labelling and describing the electoral process, there were those who considered what it all means in terms of future scenarios. In Al-Arabi Abdallah El-Sinnawi argued, "the post-Mubarak phase has begun and the first file being considered is that of passing the presidency on to his son." While El-Sinnawi did not think the succession of the son is a viable scenario in Egypt he suggests that this is what the president wants and that "he is buying time to make it possible for the son to officially take over." In the same vein El-Ibrashi says, "I believe that the regime in Egypt has completed the stabilisation phase -- the stabilisation of Mubarak for another six years of rule -- and has moved into the 'inheritance' phase -- passing on leadership to Gamal Mubarak who will enter the next elections as the NDP candidate."
