Bid to end Mubarak's rule
2004-10-25 12:28
Cairo - More than 650 politicians, activists and intellectuals issued a landmark joint statement saying they will push to amend Egypt's constitution to prevent Hosni Mubarak, the country's president for almost a quarter of a century, from standing for another term next year.
Mubarak, 76, has been Egypt's president and leader of the National Democratic Party since replacing his assassinated predecessor, Anwar Sadat, in 1981.
His current six-year term ends in October, 2005 and he has not chosen a successor. In four previous presidential referendums, which require Egyptians to vote yes or no, he has been the sole candidate.
About 689 people, ranging from Islamists to Communists and including 30 members of parliament, signed a petition on Saturday in the name of The Popular Campaign for Reforms, an umbrella group formed last month to try to amend Egypt's constitution to limit a president to holding two terms only.
Among the signatories, including 26 human rights and civil society groups and opposition political parties, was the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic group, which has 17 members represented in the Egyptian parliament as independents.
The petition said maintaining the system of one-man rule in Egypt would be "an obstacle to all opportunities for reform and progress which the country needs in order to face political, social and economical challenges".
These included curbing the spread of corruption, deterioration of public services, price increases, fall in standard of living and rising unemployment levels, the petition said.
In the face of growing reform calls, Mubarak's government underwent a major cabinet reshuffle July 14, replacing the so called old guard with a range of technocrats and business-minded ministers.
Supporters of the move praised it for introducing new ideas and trying to revive the country's ailing economy. But critics said Mubarak was only making cosmetic changes to avoid the need for deep political reforms.
Petition signatory Ibrahim Mansour, a leading journalist and member of Egypt's press syndicate, acknowledged that the chances of forcing such a change were "slim", but he added that we will "push for changing the constitution anyway".
Mansour told the AP that the petition is a "wake-up call" to Egypt's parliament, which is dominated by Mubarak's party, and the West that "the Egyptian people want and will not give up hope to make reforms and end this expired party's rule over our destiny"
Mubarak has previously ruled out amending Egypt's constitution to limit a president to only two terms of office, while the parliament has routinely rejected calls for more than one candidate to run at presidential elections.
Mubarak has not indicated whether he will run for another term, while speculation has been rife that his 41-year-old son, Gamal, who heads a powerful policy making post within his father's political party, is being groomed to succeed him.
- AP