So an election will be held after all

A fortnight ago we commented in this page on how a prominent Egyptian politician, Ayman Nour, leader of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party, had been stripped of his parliamentary immunity and imprisoned. We also commented that the authorities were working to ensure that the incumbent President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, would be the only candidate in the country's presidential election.

Well that story was overtaken by developments which occurred just a few hours before this paper went to press. We would like to retrace our steps.

As we had shown, Mr Mubarak had described the call for constitutional changes as "futile" and those who advocate them as "going against the national interests".

This was stated in an interview to Al Ahram, published on January 30. While addressing a rally of university students in his hometown of Menufiya, on February 26, Mr Mubarak announced that he would ask Parliament to amend the constitution to allow for direct election of the president with multiple candidates.

"I took the reins of this initiative in order to start a new era on the path of reform," Mr Mubarak was reported to have said.

Many issues of democratic reform began to be discussed in earnest in Egypt. Meanwhile the newspaper Al Ghad, banned by the authorities in Cairo after the arrest of Mr Nour, finally made it to the news stands on Wednesday.

The paper announced that Mr Nour will be contesting Mr Mubarak in the forthcoming election.

Yesterday it was announced that Mr Nour was released on bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (around Lm565), which was paid by his supporters.

In a resolution approved on February 23, the European Parliament roundly condemned Mr Nour's arrest. The Parliament also called for his immediate release.

Two days before that, Mr Mubarak had also earned a public rebuke from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

President George W. Bush repeated a call he had made previously that Egypt, which had led the way towards peace in the Middle East, could now show the way towards democracy in the region.

One hopes that this will be the case. In the meantime, things can only get tougher for those who think they can contain the pressure for democratic change in the Mediterranean region.