Dates of last and next legislative elections:  2000/2005

Head of state: President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak

AT THE LAST ELECTION

Egypt is a multiparty system in theory. In practice, the ruling NDP, backed by the military, runs a one-party state.

Profile

Egypt has been politically stable since World War II, with just three leaders since 1954, when Gemal Abdel Nasser, the power behind a military coup in 1952, assumed the presidency. In 1981 President Anwar Sadat was assassinated, but was immediately replaced by Hosni Mubarak, a man in the same mold. The NDP retains its grip on the political process by means of the state of emergency. Elections in 2000 were more transparent than before and the Islamic opposition fared slightly better, but many candidates elected as independents then joined the NDP.

While Nasser promoted Arab socialism, influenced by the Soviet model, Sadat and Mubarak (whose fourth term began in 1999) encouraged private enterprise. However, there has been no parallel liberalization in politics.

Main Political Issues

Islamic fundamentalism

The NDP government is engaged in a struggle against Islamist terrorist groups seeking to turn Egypt into a Muslim theocracy. Extremists have been responsible for numerous attacks since 1994 on police and tourists, and attempted to assassinate Mubarak in 1995. The fundamentalist message, with promises of improved conditions, has proved attractive to both urban and rural poor. Mosques are often the main providers of education and health services that parallel those of the state. Though the government uses draconian measures to counter the terrorist threat, and banned the only legal Islamic party, the Labor Party, in 2000, it continues to allow religious organizations to pursue their social programs. A 1999 truce between the government and radicals still holds, though Egyptian Islamists have become more active in global terrorism.

The state of emergency

The ruling NDP has repeatedly extended the national state of emergency, in force since the assassination of Sadat by Islamist terrorists in 1981, most recently in 2002 for a further three years. Emergency laws have been invoked to justify the ban on religious parties and groupings, especially the Muslim Brotherhood. Human rights groups claim that emergency powers are routinely applied to silence the NDP's political opponents.

From "The Financial Times World Desk Reference" © Dorling Kindersley 2004