Opposition Unites to Oust Mubarak's Party in Parliamentary Election

Days after a respected think tank published a report recommending Egypt?s opposition unite to take parliamentary seats from the ruling party, the majority of the Egyptian opposition movements and parties did just that.

With only four weeks to go before Egypt?s parliamentary elections, 10 opposition groups put aside their political differences and their personal hostilities in order to win over seats from President Hosni Mubarak?s National Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP is the institutional embodiment of the governing elite, which has ruled Egypt since 1952.

Today, a new Middle East is in fact emerging, but it is not the one envisioned by either the victors of World War I or the architects of Oslo. It begins, rather, with the American defeat of Saddam Hussein?s regime, itself inspired by the aspiration evident in the Bush administration?s tectonic policy shift after 9/11: To spread freedom to Middle Eastern peoples living under tyrannical, terror-feeding regimes. At the heart of what has come to be called the Bush Doctrine?articulated in the president?s speech to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, his State of the Union address of January 2002, his remarks on the Middle East that June, and the launch of the Middle East Partnership Initiative that December?lies the ambition to cultivate democracy in the Middle East so as to strike at the roots of terrorism.

Since then, a tempest has been gathering in the Arab world: The historic January 30, 2005 elections in post-Saddam Iraq; shortly thereafter municipal elections in Saudi Arabia and presidential and local elections in the post-Arafat Palestinian Authority; massive protests in Beirut after the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, resulting in Syria?s withdrawal of its 14,000 troops from Lebanon and the first elections there in three decades in the absence of Syrian forces; Egypt?s first multiparty presidential elections this September; under the banner of kifaya (?Enough!?), crowds protesting President Hosni Mubarak?s twenty-four-year rule; the announcement this July from Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak?s 42-year-old son, that for the first time the ruling National Democratic Party?s leaders at both the central and regional levels would be choosing the party?s presidential nominee; the decision in Kuwait?s parliament this May to grant women the right to vote and run for office; Oman?s first full-suffrage elections held in October 2003; Qatar?s adoption of a new constitution in September 2004 granting greater political rights; Bahraini elections for municipal councils in May 2002 and for the lower house of parliament that October?the first elections held in that country in 28 years; and King Abdullah?s December 2003 speech calling on his government to make ?radical changes? aimed at turning Jordan into ?a modern, democratic country.?