The Mubarak Presidency: Prospects for Stability and Peace

Abstract

After Sadat’s assassination, Husni Mubarak, the Vice-President of Egypt and former Commander of the air force, took command and assumed the presidency. The constitutional procedures were carefully followed in order to reassure the outside world, as much as Egyptians, of continuity in government. Within ten days Mubarak had been elected President, and power was transferred in an orderly manner. The substantial degree of public acceptance and support for the new President followed naturally from Mubarak’s style of conducting domestic and foreign policies. One of his first moves was to release many of the prominent opposition figures detained in September 1981, and to consult them on matters of national importance. Equally important, he demonstrated an awareness of the complaints arising from the economic inequalities besetting Egypt.