October 5, - Mubarak is sworn in as president for his fourth term and names Atef Obeid as prime minister after the government led by Kamal Ganzouri resigns. March - Street protests by the Kefaya Enough Movement draw hundreds across Egypt to oppose a fifth term for Mubarak or any attempt to install his son Gamal in his place.
Days before, police say they detained about members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. May 11, - Parliament votes to change the constitution to allow contested presidential elections, dismissing opposition complaints that strict rules would prevent genuine competition. A referendum later in May overwhelmingly confirms the constitutional change. September 27, - Mubarak is sworn in for a fifth consecutive term after winning the first contested presidential election on September 7.
Rival Ayman Nour is the only member of parliament to remain seated during the ceremony, apparently to show his refusal to accept the official vote count. Eight people were killed on the last day of voting on December 7.
The Muslim Brotherhood says it has won 12 seats, expanding its parliamentary bloc to 88, nearly a fifth of the seats and its strongest showing ever. November 19, - Mubarak says he will retain his responsibilities for the rest of his life.
In effect, Mr Mubarak ruled as a quasi-military leader when he took power. For his entire period in office, he kept the country under emergency law, giving the state sweeping powers of arrest and curbing basic freedoms. The government argued the draconian regime was necessary to combat Islamist terrorism, which came in waves during the decades of Mr Mubarak's rule - often targeting Egypt's lucrative tourism sector.
He presided over a period of domestic stability and economic development that meant most of his fellow countrymen accepted his monopolisation of power. But towards the end of his tenure in power, Mr Mubarak felt for the first time the pressure to encourage democracy, both from within Egypt, and from his most powerful ally, the United States. Many supporters of reform doubted the veteran ruler's sincerity when he said he was all for opening up the political process.
Ahead of his declaration that he would not to stand again for the presidency, the US had heaped pressure on him to stand aside, calling for an "orderly transition" of power to a more democratic system. Mr Mubarak won three elections unopposed since , but for his fourth contest in - after a firm push from the US - he changed the system to allow rival candidates.
They accused the Egyptian leader of presiding over a sustained campaign of suppressing. The length of his time in power, along with his age and possible successors, had all been sensitive subjects in Egypt until the mass protests allowed the Egyptian people to find a voice. People around Mr Mubarak said his health and vigour belied his age - although a couple of health scares served as a reminder of his advancing years. Rumours about the president's health gathered pace when he travelled to Germany in March for gall bladder surgery.
They flared every time he missed a key gathering or disappeared from the media spotlight for any conspicuous length of time. However much Egyptian officials tried to deny them, they kept circulating, with reports in the Israeli and pan-Arab media.
The days of mass protests in Egyptian cities prompted Mr Mubarak to finally name a vice-president. On 29 January , intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was elevated to the role in what was seen as an attempt by Mr Mubarak to bolster his support in the military.
Two weeks later Mr Mubarak's three-decade rule was over, and in March he was under arrest. In the past, Mr Mubarak had said he would continue to serve Egypt until his last breath. In his speech on 1 February , he said: "This dear nation On its soil I will die.
On Feb. Mubarak made his name in Egypt as a military man, first training at the Military Academy and then the Air Force Academy, an institution he would eventually lead, becoming commander of the Air Force in He then became vice president under then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat a few years later—and rose to the top office not out of deft political maneuvering but because his boss was assassinated.
Few outside of Egypt considered the medium- to long-term repercussions of a regime that was built on repression of social and political grievances. Nor did many out of the country recognize that an economic system that enfranchised a tiny slice of the population in the elite, buttressed by corruption, while the vast majority of Egyptians continued to be poor, inevitably would lead to a backlash of some sort or another.
As Egypt entered the 21st century, the regime that Mubarak built became more and more strained under the surface. For years on end, those of all political stripes—political Islamists, non-Islamist leftists, and others—were silenced or punished. The regime was built on autocracy, corruption, cronyism, and the use of 20th-century state institutions to stifle dissent. The uprising was spontaneous—one that happened as the result of many years of neglect and the failing of the Egyptian state to give a sense of dignity to scores of Egyptians.
If one man is responsible for that, it is Mubarak. And it was thus he who precipitated his own downfall. That, indeed, is his legacy. I was in Tahrir Square on the night of Feb.
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