CAIRO, 17 August 2005 — Egypt’s first competitive presidential campaign kicks off today, with little likelihood that the opposition will mount a successful challenge to incumbent Hosni Mubarak. Both the regime and the opposition’s chances of bringing about real change appear to have been further dimmed by a fresh wave of terror attacks on Egyptian soil.
Under international pressure, the 77-year-old Mubarak has for the first time in his 24-year rule allowed rivals to challenge him in a presidential election. Among the nine challengers, reform champion Ayman Nour and liberal Wafd Party leader Numan Gumaa stick out as the most high-profile but a fifth term for Egypt’s “rais” looks guaranteed.
The election has nevertheless yielded some novelties on the political scene, with parties arguing over whether or not to boycott the poll and civil society groups making an unprecedented push to monitor it.
The run-up to the vote has witnessed a string of anti-Mubarak street demonstrations unthinkable only a year ago, and the large portraits of the leader that used to dot the country’s roads and buildings are disappearing.
Mubarak retains the privilege of having the Islamic crescent as the symbol for his campaign, a logo that will appear on the ballots when an estimated 32 million Egyptians make their decision on Sept. 7.
Many parties have complained that the conditions in which the poll will be taking place and the restrictions imposed on candidates wishing to challenge Mubarak will not allow for a free and fair election.
Two major opposition groups — the Marxist Tagammu and the Nasserist party — have called for a boycott of the poll, while the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, which remains Egypt’s main opposition force, has yet to make its position known.
The US Embassy has warned Americans not to travel to the Sinai Peninsula following a Monday roadside bomb blast that lightly wounded two Canadian women attached to a peacekeeping force. The crude blast, caused by a natural gas canister packed with explosives, targeted a vehicle belonging to the MFO.
The embassy statement, issued Monday, said the attack followed the reported discovery by Egyptian authorities of one ton of explosives in the north Sinai city of El-Arish on Sunday and the reported shooting a day earlier at an intercity bus.
