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The consequences of having a different opinion. By Tamam Darwish in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa. "They say they'll make it difficult for the candidates, like whether they know how to read and write." Mustafa Hussein, in Egypt's daily Al-Akhbar, on amending Article 76 of the constitution to allow for more than one candidate to run in this year's presidential elections.

"How can a republican political system be consistent with itself in a state like Egypt where the authority of the president is no less than that of an African king, an emperor in some distant country or a tribal chieftain in the desert?" -- Nabil Omar, Sawt Al-Ummah

"The invisible American government represented by the neo-cons knows well that the 'big prize' is Egypt. But it also realises that it is a difficult prize to obtain and so they adopted the Trojan horse ploy which is based on wreaking havoc from within." -- Abdel-Moniem Mohamed, Rose El-Youssef

"The president is now responsible for Iraq in its entirety, rather than one region alone... It makes no difference whether he is a Kurd, Arab, Turcoman, Muslim, Christian or Yezidi. What is important is that he is Iraqi." -- Basim Al-Sheikh, Al-Dustour

"Neither Arafat's death nor the Gaza withdrawal change realities that have blocked previous hopeful episodes. Settlements expand, the separation wall continues to be built, Palestinian refugees remain stateless, Hamas builds rockets and Palestinian security forces remain unregulated and undisciplined." -- Jason Erb, Al-Hayat

"Before you can say Jack Robinson, we'll find ourselves before a series of demands and concerns raised by the US administration and we will be forced to respond." -- Alex Fishman, Yediot Aharonot