The Egypt Constitution Reform

·  The fact:

Egyptian President Husni Mubarak has ordered a review and amendment of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in September.

·  What you need to know to understand what it’s at stake nowadays in Egypt?

→ First: Mubarak took office after President Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981 and he has

never faced an opponent during four referendums that allowed Egyptians to vote either “yes” or “no” on his continued rule.

→ Second: with this reform, the president might pave the way for a nationwide election that would see Mubarak’s son Gamal elected to succeed him.

→ Third: the reform consists in amending Article 76 of the 1971 Constitution which deals with how the president is chosen.

·  I chose five articles which speak about this topic:

I took two articles from occidental newspapers: The New York Times and The Herald Tribune….

And three articles from Middle East media which are: Aljazeera and the Middle East Times.

·  The Middle East Times article which was written one week before the four other articles dealt with the protest in Cairo against a potential fifth term for Mubarak in next September presidential election.

→ It’s strange to note that this opposition seems to lead Mubarak to a sudden and unexpected constitution reform statement.

→ And it is about this statement that every newspaper spoke about last week.

·  The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune chose the same journalist, Neil Mac Farquhar, to report what is happening in Egypt. Thus, both articles are quite similar.

First, they try to explain the potential constitution reform. Thus, for Mubarak:

"The president will be elected through direct, secret balloting, opening the opportunity for political parties to run in the presidential elections and providing guarantees that allow more than one candidate for the people to choose from with their own will”

But the reform doesn’t seem to satisfy everybody.

→ It is true that some analysts and opposition politicians praised the proposal as heralding a new era for Egypt.

→ Nevertheless, other analysts sounded notes of doubt because Parliament here has a long history of diluting reforms and may yet announce rules on candidacy that would create the aura of democracy while blocking any real change.

→ Moreover, in this reform, there is just question to amend Article 76 and not Article 77 which provides for unlimited terms.

·  Aljazeera articles also deal with the intricate amendment of Article 77 which is not planned in the potential reform. And, according to Hasan Naffa, the head of the Political Science Department at Cairo University:

"If this amendment is limited to Article 76, without going further to Article 77, which determines the length of presidential terms, it won't affect the current status of the political regime,"

·  Moreover, all the newspapers seem to agree to say that it was internal pressures which pushed the government to act. Besides, according to Hasan Nafaa:

“Despite the presence of external pressures on the regime we can’t underestimate the internal pressures of the opposition”

·  This external pressures should be the American ones according to the New York Times which explained that:

“This is a way to improve his image with the Americans and to please them with some formal changes”

·  In the meantime, in accordance with Aljazeera, Egyptian political analysts are welcoming the constitutional amendment, but warn stumbling blocks still stand in the way of full electoral reform.

→ Thus, without changes or cancellation of the emergency laws, in place since 1981, ordinary Egyptian citizens would be barred from running as candidates in any elections and the list of those eligible would be limited to the opposition parties already in existence.

·  The only thing that we can hope when we read these articles, it’s to trust George W. Bush when he said:

“the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East”.

→ So, let’s hope that things will be different in Egypt that they are in Iraq.

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