Egypt: Another Domino Tips
Lets recall that the true credit goes to the 1500 US soldiers KIA in Iraq, their families, and the 135,000 US troops fighting on today.
Mubarak to Permit Presidental Elections
NYT: President Hosni Mubarak asked Egypt’s Parliament on Saturday to amend the Constitution to allow for direct, multiparty presidential elections this year for the first time in the nation’s history.
On the face of it, the unexpected proposal from Mr. Mubarak, a former Air Force general who has ruled Egypt unchallenged since 1981, represents a sea change in a country with a 50-year history of one-party governments.
“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,” Mr. Mubarak said, speaking live on television before an audience at the University of Menoufiya in the Egyptian delta.
Some opposition politicians and other analysts hailed the proposal as heralding a new political era for Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, while skeptics said they wanted to await the details to be sure that the eventual constitutional amendment would not create only the appearance of democracy, a common problem in the region.
