The aging autocrat, President Hosni
Mubarak, was coming under growing domestic pressure from an unusually
broad opposition coalition known as Kifaya (meaning “enough”—
which succinctly summed up the country’s mood), as well as from U.S.
president George W. Bush, who was also pushing for more open and
competitive presidential and legislative elections. Reluctantly, Mubarak
agreed to allow a contested presidential election and then more transparent
legislative elections in 2005.