Update 30 July 2005 Mubarak runs for president By Dina Ezzat On Friday, the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) accepted nomination documents presented by candidates planning to run for Egypt's first ever multi-candidate presidential elections on 7 September. President Hosni Mubarak, who chairs the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), delegated a lawyer to submit his nomination papers to the PEC. Ayman Nour, chairman of the recently founded Al-Ghad Party -- who is widely viewed to be the only serious, albeit not challenging, contender to Mubarak -- presented his papers. Other leaders of small political parties and two independents, Sabri Abdel-Aziz Khalil and Mohamed Attiyah Abdel-Meguid, also presented their papers. Other contenders for the presidential race could still present the PEC with their nomination papers for a little under a week. The pan-Arab Nasserist and left-wing Tagammu parties decided to boycott the presidential elections protesting "unfair" elections regulations. The other leading party, Al-Wafd (right-wing) will declare Monday its decision on whether or not to join the race. Al-Wafd so far seems inclined to join the Nasserist and Tagammu boycott. It is widely believed by observers, opposition and NDP members alike that Mubarak is going to defeat all contenders lacking the power and popularity that the president of the state has mastered during 23 years in office. "I intend to nominate myself for the next presidential elections. I will seek to win the trust and support of the people for a new term," said Mubarak in a public speech that he made before a gathering of NDP supporters in the governorate of Monoufiya, north of Cairo. Monoufiya is the birthplace of the president. Present at the public gathering, which was held in the high school that the president attended in the early 1940s, were First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, Alaa Mubarak, the president's elder son, and Gamal Mubarak, his younger son and influential chairman of the NDP policies committee whose name has long been surrounded with speculation as a potential NDP presidential candidate. Also present were speakers of the parliament and Shura Council, the prime minister and a host of ministers are affiliated to the NDP. "I am determined to be at the heart of this forthcoming period, and to seek the people's trust and mandate so that I might continue leading the nation through [forthcoming] challenges," Mubarak said. He added, "We will never compromise on the security and stability of the nation. We will never permit a foreign presence on our soil or external interference in our affairs. We will not surrender to the threat of terrorism." This was the first time that Mubarak appealed for public support for the presidential mandate. In 1981, following the assassination of late President Anwar El-Sadat, Mubarak, then vice president, took office through a national referendum. Since then, he has been re-confirmed by periodic referenda. Earlier this year, however, the president called for the amendment of article 76 of the constitution to allow the nation to choose the head of state through multi-candidate elections. Opposition figures, independent reformists and even some NDP members slammed the suggested amendment as introducing exaggerated restrictions that blocked the way for independents to run. Opposition parties viewed nomination rules and regulations as 'tailored' to fit the incumbent president or Gamal Mubarak only. Opposition and reformers also protested that multi-candidate elections could not be administered appropriately under emergency law that has been in force for over two decades. In his Menoufiya speech, Mubarak promised to reconsider emergency law. The president dropped a strong hint -- without saying it explicitly -- that if elected he will work to annul the state of emergency and introduce, instead, an anti-terrorism law to help the nation in its battle with violent political movements that have made a shocking comeback during recent months. Mubarak's speech offered a wide agenda of other political and socio-economic reforms that, he said, should impose restrictions on the prerogatives of the head of state -- a long-standing demand of the opposition -- widen the authorities of the prime minister, underline decentralisation as a government principle and introduce better social security measures. The president promised free and fair elections: "As head of the state, I promise you that all the rules and regulations of free, fair and transparent elections will be observed and that all contenders will be accorded equal opportunity." This morning, the Egyptian press, and a considerable quarter of the Arab press, offered the president a strong vote of confidence. Editors and commentators of the national press described Mubarak a "a true leader" who can help Egypt navigate its way to full democracy and stability. "We are confident that Mubarak with all his wisdom and experience, and with the great faith entrusted in him by the nation, will choose to continue the journey [of reforms and democracy] that he initiated," wrote Ossama Saraya, the newly appointed editor of Al-Ahram. Mohamed Barakat, the newly appointed editor of Al-Akhbar praised Mubarak's vision for the future. "It is a vision that promises true democracy and profound constitutional and legislative reforms." These promises, however, failed to impress the opposition, and some independent reformists. Concerns were voiced over the true intentions of the president to actually implement what he promised. "What was the president trying to tell the nation? What role was he trying to play?" asked Al-Ghad leader, Ayman Nour. "If the president believed so much in the need for constitutional and legislative reforms, and if he believed in the need to democratise and to remove the emergency law," Nour asked, "then why hasn't he done this during the past 23 years?" Nour insists that if the president was "genuinely interested" in ending the state of emergency "then he could have simply used his presidential prerogatives and declared an end to the imposition of the emergency law." Nour, who is planning a press conference Saturday (30 July) to announce details of his electoral agenda, said: "If the president wants us to believe that he meant what he said then he has to tell the nation that he regrets the mistakes of the past years." Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, a leading figure of Al-Wafd party, said that he was surprised to hear Mubarak adopt the discourse of the opposition on issues related to constitutional reforms, limitation of the presidential prerogatives and emergency law. "No, this does not at all mean that he has robbed the opposition of all its cards. It actually means that he realised that the NDP had no convincing political agenda to run on so he decided to extract one from that of the different opposition parties." According to Abdel-Nour it would be "hard to believe that the president intends to honour the commitments he made in his Menoufiya speech, since he promised things that he has demonstrated over the past 23 years to have little faith in." Equally suspicious were the Tagammu, Nasserist parties and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian Movement for Change (Kifaya), the leading non-partisan popular movement for reform, has also expressed doubts about the intentions of the president. "If he truly wishes to reform," Kifaya co-ordinator George Ishak suggested, "then he needs to offer us a specific timetable of the reforms he's willing to implement. This should be a timetable agreed upon by all Egyptians, not just by the government" Kifaya and other protest groups who oppose the nomination of Mubarak for a fifth term will hold a series of demonstrations on Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Senior analyst of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Diaa Rashwan said that what worried him most is the lack of "details in the plan offered by the president". He is promising general reforms "but we don't know exactly what he has in mind," Rashwan said. Baheddin Hassan, a rights activist and member of the government-appointed National Council for Human Rights, argued that the president is simply walking the same path of "limited democratisation" initiated by the July 1952 revolution. Hassan argued that the process of political reform is a long one, and will have to be led by the people; "Neither by the president nor by the opposition but by the street which is slowly but gradually reviving its command of politics that it had for too long abandoned." Individuals who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly in the hours following the speech of the president voiced different concerns. Men and women of different socio-economic backgrounds and of different age groups said that they wanted the president -- whom they were "sure" will be re-elected -- to improve living standards and the quality of education and healthcare Egyptians receive. None of the 20 Egyptians asked by the Weekly the question, "What did you expect of President Mubarak's speech?" made any considerable reference to political reforms.
