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Democracy promotion / Comment

Multiple candidate elections in Egypt: diverting pressure for democracy

16/03/2005 By Robert Springborg

President Mubarak’s surprise announcement on 26 February that he would ask parliament to amend Article 76 of the constitution to permit multiple candidate presidential elections effectively pre-empted political debate in Egypt.

All sides immediately began speculating on the causes and consequences of this proposed dramatic change to the current system of a referendum on a single candidate nominated by the lower house of parliament.

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Keywords

Civil society Democracy Egypt Elections

Bio author: Robert Springborg

PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 1974. He was associated with Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, for 27 years, where he became a University Professor of Middle East Politics. While there he founded and administered a Middle East Center and served as President of the Australasian Middle East Studies Association. He also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, and at the University of Sydney and Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand. In October 2002, he became Director of the London Middle East Institute.