0
CAIRO, Feb 26: President Hosni Mubarak said on Saturday he had told parliament to amend Egypt's constitution to allow direct presidential elections in which anyone can stand and all citizens can vote by secret ballot.
The announcement, welcomed by the opposition as a first step, comes amid US pressure on Egypt to accelerate democratic reform and follows months of unprecedented protests in which demonstrators have denounced the likelihood of President Mubarak being elected to a fifth six-year term.
In a televised speech, Mr Mubarak hailed what he called a historic move signalling a new era of political reform. He said he had asked the constitution to be amended before May in time for the next presidential election.
"I took this initiative to open a new era of reform," said the 76-year-old Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated in 1981.
Under the current system, parliament elects a single candidate for the presidency by a two-thirds majority, whose name is then put to a referendum.
The move would "for the first time in Egyptian history, allow everyone who is able and willing to serve the fatherland ... to present their candidacy for direct election as president of the republic".
Both the lower and upper houses of parliament will convene extraordinary sessions to study Mr Mubarak's demand, an official said.
"This fundamental change is the product of political stability," Mr Mubarak said, adding that the "right arm of democracy is a free press".
OPPOSITION FOR MORE STEPS: Opposition figures welcomed the move but called for further steps, especially the scrapping of the state of emergency - in force since Mr Sadat was killed - restriction on the president's powers and a limit of two terms for the post.
George Isaac, coordinator of the protest movement, Egyptian Movement for Change, termed Mr Mubarak's announcement a positive step but added: "We are also asking for the limit of two being put on presidential mandates and a four-year limit imposed on each term."
Wafd party secretary general Sayed Badawi said the constitutional amendment was "a hope that the people have been waiting to come for 20 years and that lifts an obstacle to (expected) political reforms".
At home and abroad, Mr Mubarak has long justified his reluctance to spearhead political reform by citing fear of instability in a country still scarred by Mr Sadat's assassination.
Earlier this month, US President George Bush issued a rare rebuke to Cairo, one of Washington's most important allies in the Middle East, urging the Mubarak government to quicken democratic reforms.
"To promote peace and stability in the broader Middle East, the United States will work with our friends in the region to fight the common threat of terror, while we encourage a higher standard of freedom," Mr Bush said.
"The great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East," he added in his State of the Union address.
Tensions between Washington and Cairo have flared, with the United States repeatedly criticizing the detention of an Egyptian opposition leader on charges of falsifying documents to register his party.
Campaigning under the slogan Kefaya), the protest movement has organized a series of unprecedented public protests to denounce the chance of Mr Mubarak serving a fifth term in office.
The rallies have vented widespread exasperation with Mr Mubarak and his administrations and mocked the concept of hereditary power, acting on rumours that the president's eldest son, Gamal, is being groomed for power.-AFP
