WASHINGTON, May 26: President George Bush on Thursday criticized attacks on demonstrators that marred Egypt’s vote on an election referendum, even though he has welcomed what he sees as steps toward democratic reform by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“The idea of people expressing themselves in opposition to government and then getting beaten is not our view of how a democracy ought to work,” Bush told a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “It’s not the way that you have free elections.” Activists urging a boycott of Wednesday’s referendum on a new presidential election system in Egypt were beaten, kicked, and punched by plainclothes supporters of Mubarak, according to witnesses.

The protesters said the new system allows opposition candidates but sets high hurdles.

“There is no excuse for attacks on peaceful demonstrators,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters prior to the Bush news conference.—Reuters