Egypt prepares for September elections
Most people expect Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak - who has ruled Egypt for 24 years - to secure another six-year term easily on Sept. 7, and critics contend that these upcoming elections are yet another staged performance to placate domestic and international calls for democracy. But Egyptians are enraptured by the unfolding process, and, for the first time, are discussing their right to choose who rules them. Intended or not, the process is signaling a shift in the country`s collective mind-set.
The changes are largely seen to be the work of the ruling National Democratic Party`s so-called reformers, the same gang of media-savvy officials who are also at the helm of Mubarak`s reelection (or, to be honest, his first true election) campaign. They are young, smartly dressed, fluent English speakers, many of them have degrees from the West`s leading universities. Convincing voters to support their candidate seems of secondary concern to their campaign. The far more daunting task is to convince the international community that these elections will truly be free and fair.
"Some people are still skeptical about this experience, so we are trying to assure them that this is serious, that this is real change," says Mohamed Kamal, a leading Mubarak campaign official who has a PhD from Johns Hopkins University and once spent a year working as a US congressional staffer.
With US pressure for reform mounting, the public face of Egypt`s authoritarian government has undergone a significant makeover in the past week. State television, once all but off limits to the opposition, has begun giving equal air time to each candidate. Government newspapers, traditional citadels of regime propaganda, are publicizing the election platforms of Mubarak`s opponents. At opposition campaign rallies in Cairo and outlying governorates, the massive security forces, long a mainstay at public gatherings, are nowhere to be seen. Instead, a handful of traffic police escort the candidates and their caravans through traffic, and help block off streets so marchers can proceed peacefully. To skeptics, however, the increased margin of freedom is not designed to ensure fair elections, but is simply another tenet of the government`s campaign.
"The government`s message is not directed at the Egyptian people, and is not about voting for Mubarak," says Magdy Mihana, a leading independent columnist and political pundit. "The message is directed to the outside world that there are elections and that they are free and that there is real competition between more than one candidate."
And the much-heralded constitutional amendment that allowed for these presidential elections put stringent conditions on who could run. Those conditions prevented the Muslim Brotherhood, the only opposition force capable of challenging the ruling party machine, from fielding a candidate. The Brotherhood, thousands of whose members have been jailed and released in recent months, encouraged their rank and file on Sunday to participate in the elections, a move seen as a lending an air of legitimacy to the elections. Though they have denounced Mubarak, their statement has fueled rumors that the technically banned Islamist organization is cooperating with the government in exchange for increased seats in parliamentary elections later this year.
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