Color me skeptical, but if true,
this could be good news:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday ordered a revision of the country's election laws and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak hasn't faced since taking power in 1981.
The surprise announcement, a response to critics' calls for political reform, comes shortly after historic elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, balloting that brought a taste of democracy to the region. It also comes amid a sharp dispute with the United States over Egypt's arrest of one of the strongest proponents of multi-candidate elections.
"The election of a president will be through direct, secret balloting, giving the chance for political parties to run for the presidential elections and providing guarantees that allow more than one candidate for the people to choose among them with their own will," Mubarak said in an address broadcast live on Egyptian television.
Mubarak -- who has never faced an opponent since becoming president after the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat -- said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy."
The Bush Administration will feel, and with some justification, a measure of satisfaction. But very big questions are raised by this - Is this going to be a legitimate election? We know that having elections does not guarantee democracy. Who can run? Are all parties eligible? Who can win? This is not a legitimacy question, rather whether democracy will actually bring forth a positive result for U.S. interests. What support can fundamentalist Islamists garner? Can anti-U.S. parties win?
In the end, it seems difficult for me to imagine that the progress likely to be achieved towards democratic reforms in the Middle East can ever justify the Iraq Debacle, but the possibility of good news in Egypt on this front is a good thing.
Update [2005-2-26 13:42:31 by Armando]: DavidNYC reminds that not everyone may have seen this:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday abruptly called off a planned trip to several Middle Eastern countries that had been scheduled for next week, a decision that came apparently because of the arrest of a leading Egyptian opposition politician last month.
The decision highlighted a rift with an important ally over President Bush's push for democratic change. It came a day after Mr. Bush's tense meeting with Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, who was clearly uncomfortable with Mr. Bush's criticism of Russia's democracy.
The linchpin for Ms. Rice's trip had been a planned meeting in Cairo of foreign ministers for the Group of 8 industrial nations and the Arab League to discuss economic aid and democratic change in the Middle East.
But that meeting was postponed by Egypt on Sunday in an early sign of the tensions that have been building even as the Bush administration has praised Egypt for its help in the Israeli-Palestinian mediation after Yasir Arafat's death.
My post is written having that piece of news in mind.