It was in a room packed with reporters on Wednesday night that the last serious challenger in the Egyptian presidential elections announced his intention to step down. Khaled Ali, a well-known, left-leaning activist, told the room he could no longer continue the race, citing “many violations” on the part of the electoral commission, and violence against his staff. “There was a furious reaction to our campaign,” he told journalists, “the security forces arrested many members of my staff.”
Egypt is plagued with internal and external conflicts because of a lack of constitutional governance and rampant corruption. The only remedy for corruption in government is democracy and its tools of separation of powers and checks and balances. The heads of the executive, legislative, judicial and procuratorial branches should be elected in alternating years. Elected officials should be limited to one 5-year term and banned along with relatives from running again for 6 years afterwards and 1/4 of all lawmakers and committees should face election each year. In addition, election campaigns for candidates should be free to cut symbiotic ties between government and business that engender corruption. See the Charter for Permanent Peace for more. §5.3
