Hosni Mubarak

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Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt

Muhammad Hosni Said Mubarak (Arabic : محمد حسنى سيد مبارك ) (born May 4, 1928) commonly known as Hosni Mubarak (Arabic: حسنى مبارك ) has been the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt for twenty-four years, since 14 October 1981.

Mr. Mubarak was appointed the Vice-President of the Republic after moving up the ranks of the Egyptian Air Force. He ascended to the Presidency, succeeding President Anwar Sadat, following the latter's assassination on 6 October 1981.

As President of Egypt, he is considered to be one of the most powerful leaders in the region. Under the 1971 Constitution of Egypt, President Mubarak has immense control over the country.

1 Early days
2 Egypt under Mubarak
3 Posts
4 Family
5 See also
6 External links

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Early days

Mubarak was born on May 4, 1928 in Kafr-El Meselha, Menoufeya Governorate, Egypt. Upon completion of high school, he joined the Egyptian Military Academy, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Military Sciences in 1948. In 1950, he joined the Air Force Academy and eventually earned a Bachelor's Degree in Aviation Sciences, graduating at the top of his class. Part of his pilot's training he received at the Soviet pilot training school in Frunze (current Bishkek), in Soviet Kyrgyzstan. He then moved up the chain of command, holding the positions of pilot, instructor, squadron leader, and base commander. In 1964, he was appointed head of the Egyptian Military Delegation to the USSR.

In the years between 1967 and 1972, during the War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel, Mubarak was appointed Director of the Air Force Academy and Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Air Force. In 1972, he became Commander of the Air Force . In October 1973, following the October War, also known as Yom Kippur War and the 10th of Ramadan War, Mubarak was promoted to the rank of Air Marshall. In April 1975, he was appointed Vice-President of Egypt and, in 1978, he was selected as Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP).

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Egypt under Mubarak

A younger Hosni Mubarak

Following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat at the hands of Islamists in 1981, Mubarak became President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Chairman of the National Democratic Party. President Mubarak has been re-elected by majority votes in referenda for successive terms on four occasions: in 1987, 1993, 1999 and 2005. The results of the referenda are however of questionable validity. No one runs against the President due to a restriction in the Egyptian Constitution in which the People's Assembly plays the main role in electing the President of the Republic. However in February 2005 Mubarak passed a constitutional amendment allowing parties directly running against the incumbent president. But people still voted for him and he won again.

Although Mubarak's popularity grew over time and his role as a leader of the Arab World has been solidified in the 1980s and 1990s, he started to lose support in Egypt by the mid-1990s. The breakthrough economic performance of the early 1990s was wasted.

The dramatic drop in support for Mubarak increased with surfacing news about his son Alaa being extremely corrupt and favoured in government tenders and privatization. As Alaa started getting out of the picture by 2000, Mubarak's second son Gamal started rising in the National Democratic Party and succeeded in getting a newer generation of neo-liberals into the party and eventually the government. Due to Gamal's increasing visibility and influence, rumours about him being groomed for the presidency became common. Nevertheless, this was publicly refuted by the president several times. Moreover, although the public generally likes Gamal Mubarak as a person, many believe that his succession would mean a hereditary pseudo-monarchy (see Family dictatorship).

In July 2004, Mubarak accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and the entire cabinet. Mubarak appointed Ahmed Nazif as the new Prime Minister. The new cabinet is generally viewed with optimism, and economic conditions are starting to improve considerably after a period of stagnation.

President Mubarak spoke out against the 2003 war on Iraq, arguing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be tackled first. Egypt was a member of the allied coalition in the 1991 Gulf War and Egyptian foot soldiers were some of the first to land in Kuwait to evict Iraqi forces.

After increased domestic and international pressure for democratic reform in Egypt, on February 26, 2005 Mubarak asked the largely rubber-stamp parliament to amend the constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections by September 2005. Previously, Mubarak secured his position by having himself nominated by parliament, then confirmed without opposition in a referendum. The September 2005 ballot was therefore a multiple candidate election rather then a referendum, but the electoral institutions, security apparatus and most of the Egyptian media remain solidly in Mubarak's hands.

On July 28, Mubarak announced his candidacy, as he had been widely expected to do. The election which was scheduled for September 7 involved mass rigging activities according to civil organizations that observed the elections. Reports have shown that Mubarak's party used government vehicles to take public employees to vote for Mubarak. Votes were bought for Mubarak in poor suburbs and rural areas. It was also reported that thousands of illegal votes were allowed for Mubarak from citizens who were not registered to vote. On September 8, Dr. Ayman Nour, the candidate for El-Ghad party, contested the election results and demanded a repeat of the election.

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