Faces, races
CAIRO'S streets certainly look different as the nation's first ever multi-candidate presidential election nears. Billboards boasting the leading candidates' merits are everywhere. Newspapers and TV are filled with campaign ads and news of rallies and electoral promises.
But what's behind the democratic gloss? This week saw developments on a wide spectrum of voter concerns. As the government announced that it would not be allowing international monitors to observe the 7 September poll, a variety of domestic NGOs -- both sanctioned and unsanctioned -- began monitoring the election process on their own. The media received much of their attention, as promises that the state-run press would be unbiased in its coverage were picked apart.
The all-important issue of judicial supervision over the election process also witnessed a turnaround. While there had been signs that judges were set to relent on their previous threats to boycott supervision of the poll, this week it looked like the issue was up in the air again, after the Presidential Elections Commission seemed to backtrack on some of the judges' more stringent demands.
But it was the candidates themselves and their campaign promises -- especially those of incumbent President Hosni Mubarak, and his two closest competitors, the Wafd Party's Noaman Gomaa and the Ghad Party's Ayman Nour -- that received the most scrutiny. Mubarak's ambitious promises to create more jobs, improve healthcare and resolve many of the nation's political, social and economic woes were cast into doubt by both Gomaa and Nour, as well as other opponents. Yesterday, Mubarak's campaign responded. Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieddin called the opposition's rhetoric "vague", and used the example of one newspaper's reporting of completely different unemployment figures in subsequent editions, which he said showed disrespect for standards of accuracy.
photos: Mohamed Wassim & AFP
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