Hosni Mubarak has run unopposed in all but one “election” due to the Egyptian constitution making any other candidates ineligible. Finally, after 24 years in office, he permitted a multi-candidate election in 2005. During that election, there was widespread election fraud and intimidation by Mubarak, abetted by the state-run media being completely filled with pro-Mubarak propaganda. After the election, the runner-up (and possibly the actual winner if a real count could have been taken) was arrested and imprisoned for the next four years. Egypt has been operating under emergency law that suspends most of the constitution since 1967, under the guise of protecting the people from terrorists. Under that emergency law, the government can imprison people for essentially no reason for any length of time, parliamentary elections are suspended, and assets can be seized on the word of the President with no recourse.
And VP Biden says Mubarak is not a dictator. Right. Biden’s just jealous.
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Thanks for the succinct wrap-up! This is really embarrassing to admit – but until I started seeing Egypt in the headlines lately I had no idea what was going on. I had to do a few Google searches to ascertain what the riots were about, and could never get any background on Mubarak or why he is such a bad dude. Law school has really isolated my world-view – it’s all I can do to keep up with DC news, and I mean…neighborhood, not Capitol Hill. This helped a lot.
suspends most of the constitution since 1967, under the guise of protecting the people from terrorists…wow, I thought we were original when we did it. 🙂
It makes you sad for those who assume we can’t keep this up forever. If Egypt can do it, so can we!