SHIBIN EL-KOM, Egypt, 29 July 2005 — President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s leader for almost a quarter of a century, announced his bid yesterday to run in this country’s first-ever multicandidate elections on Sept. 7, pledging to introduce sweeping reforms including scrapping contentious emergency laws.
But key opponents, including top rival Ayman Nour, slammed Mubarak’s promises and said he should have immediately abolished the emergency laws, which were introduced following the 1981 assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.
Mubarak, 77, made his widely expected announcement to seek a fifth six-year term during a nationally televised speech delivered in Shibin El-Kom, the capital of the Nile delta province of Menoufia where he was born.
“I announce in front of you from here, the province of Menoufia, that I have decided to nominate myself for the presidential elections,” said Mubarak, whose speech was immediately interrupted by wild applause from hundreds of supporters, including his wife, Suzanne, and sons Alaa and Gamal.
In a wide-ranging address that touched on his upbringing in this region north of Cairo and role as Egypt’s air force commander during the October 1973 war with Israel, Mubarak also laid out his vision for the future following his likely election win, including giving the Parliament and government more powers and placing checks on the president’s role.
Days after Egypt’s deadliest ever terrorist attacks in the Sinai Peninsula resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Mubarak also proposed introducing new anti-terrorism legislation to replace the emergency laws in place since extremists killed Sadat during a 1981 Cairo military parade. He also called for an Arab leaders’ summit on Wednesday in Sharm to deal with the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, Iraq and the “many challenges that might drive the region to dangerous paths,” a clear reference to terrorism.
“The time has come to create decisive role to fight terrorism... (by introducing) a law that would be a legislative replacement for the emergency law in combating terrorism,” said Mubarak, a key US ally who has cast himself as moderating influence in the turbulent Middle East.
Such a law would be designed to “besiege terrorism, uproot it and drain its resources” while protecting national security and ensuring stability, he said.
Nour, who heads the Al-Ghad opposition party, argued that if Mubarak was seriously considering replacing the emergency laws, then “let him announce their scrapping... right now.” A senior official of the opposition Tagammu party said it opposed Mubarak seeking a fifth term.
