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Mubarak Decision Sparks Islamist Party Protest

A decree by Egyptan President Hosni Mubarak that effectively postpones local elections by extending the terms of thousands of political allies of the president for two years drew an angry response this week from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt`s largest opposition group. The Brotherhood is officially banned but members have been permitted to run in national elections as independents. They see this move as an effort to prevent their rise from continuing.

The terms of local council members were scheduled to expire this past Tuesday, and according to the law, elections for these councils were to be scheduled within 60 days. But President Mubarak issued a decree extending the terms to six years. The councils are considered crucial institutions of centralized state control in Egypt.

The measure still needs approval by the lower house, where Mubarak`s National Democratic Party holds a solid majority. Elections in the fall gave the Muslim Brotherhood an unprecedented number of seats, though not enough to prevent the move by Mubarak in parliament. Even so, legislators from the party have pledged to fight the decision as vigorously as is possible. Mubarak has been in power since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in the early 1980s.