The coverage of the Egyptian presidential elections is revealing sudden signs of change, writes Dina Ezzat For the second consecutive week, the presidential election has been the daily bread and butter for the partisan press and material for the state-run Egyptian media and semi- official press (plus mostly colour stories for the Arab and foreign press). In all events, there was something in almost every story and TV programme covering the first-ever multi-candidate presidential elections that showed change had arrived in Egyptian society. The obvious change was that President Hosni Mubarak no longer had a monopoly of front page photos in the semi-official press. With the single exception of Al-Ahram which seems to be taking its time in forgoing its long-standing tradition of putting Mubarak's photos constantly on its front page, most other semi-official publications have opted to observe the rules of the new game of democracy currently being played in the country. Al-Akhbar, as opposed to its prestigious sister weekly Akhbar Al-Youm, exerted much effort in this respect with almost daily front page coverage and photos of the elections, although with Mubarak's photo always on top and with the photo of Al-Ghad leader and presidential candidate Ayman Nour -- who has spoken the most daring criticism of Mubarak's regime and family -- lingering behind. In fact, to judge by the accounts of the Arab and foreign press, Mubarak himself seems to have been resigned to the fact that the time has come to change and that he can no longer be the sole newsmaker. Moreover, as the London-based and Saudi-financed daily Asharq Al-Awsat noted, Mubarak has declined all but the most pressing foreign visits during the presidential campaign in order to avoid confusing his presidential profile with his electoral image. And as Israeli, British and US dailies noted, this is the first time that billboards carrying Mubarak's photos are not monopolising the Cairo skyline -- although as the foreign press noted they had the best spots reserved for them whether they were hung up by the official campaign or by supporters of the president. The other sign of change, apparent for some time, is the growing role and credibility of the expanding independent press, this despite papers like the daily Al-Wafd which act as nothing more than a mere campaign publication of Al-Wafd's presidential candidate Noaman Gomaa, and the weekly Al-Ghad of Nour, despite its daily 16-page electoral publication put out for the duration of the campaign. There is a new found liberty of many an independent press, particularly the Ibrahim Eissa-edited weeklies Al-Dustour and Sawt Al-Ummah, in criticising the president's "new look", his electoral programme which they described as too unrealistic and his ability to run in view of what they claimed was his deteriorating health. The grievances of Copts and the impact of this sector of Egyptian society on the outcome of the results is also making an appearance thanks to these elections. Independent, opposition and Arab papers alike ask: for who will the Copts vote for? As several Arab dailies noted, this would have been a taboo question only a few months ago, not to mention years. The 50 per cent quota of parliament seats reserved for labourers and farmers in the parliament -- one of the tenets of the 1952 July Revolution -- was also questioned, criticised and defended. Surprisingly, it was the liberal presidential candidate Gomaa who was quoted by Al-Wafd and other publications as saying he would support the quota and, according to El-Masry El-Youm, "would advocate a 100 per cent quota for labourers and farmers" provided they are truly independent from the government. And it was Suleiman Gouda, an associate of the left, who criticised the continued application of the quota. Talk of international versus local monitoring of the elections -- some members of the ruling National Democratic Party appeared on Egyptian TV in support of monitoring -- and debate over the scope and volume of judiciary supervision of the polls, were other signs of change that might very well continue as the 7 September vote approaches.
