Half a cheer for democracy

Promises of reform mix uneasily with baton charges on opposition parties

'I am certain of my choice,' President Hosni Mubarak told the audience in his old school on 27 July, announcing his candidacy for a fifth term. 'I choose a strong, a democratic, Egypt which ventures into the future with free Egyptian citizens'. For the first time Mubarak, on the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) ticket, will face opposition at the presidential election on 7 September.

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Hosni Mubarak, George Ishaq, Amin Eskandar, Omar Suleiman, Ayman al Zawahiri, Usama bin Laden, Moroccans, British, Saudi Arabian, Abdel Bari Atwan, Israel, Sudan, Anwar Sadat, Gamal Abdel, Nasser, Ahmed Seif Islam, Ihab Sherif, Iraq, Fahd bin Abdel Aziz, Algeria, Gamal Mubarak, United States, Ayman Nour, Talat Sadat, Saadeddin Ibrahim, Mohammed Kamal, Ahmed Nazeef, Ibrahim Saeda, Kifaya, Kifaya, Ikhwan, Ikhwan, Wafd, Gama'at al Islamiya, Al Qaida, Al Sharq al Awsat, Al Qaida, Al Quds, Ghad, Kifaya, Tagammu, Al Ahram

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