In Egypt, presidents last until further notice. They tend to stay in power beyond their tenure, as if they have an instinct for it. In an attempt to initiate an era of democracy, by embracing a multi-party system under civilian rule and with no army intervention, the first Egyptian President, Mohamed Naguib (1953-1954), was overthrown by a coup d’état. Accordingly, Egypt’s first democratic thinking president, who could have paved a distinct path, ruled for no more than a year. Naguib was later confined to an isolated house until 1972, when Egypt’s third president, Anwar El Sadat, freed him. With Naguib out of the picture came Gamal Abdel Nasser who governed the country for 14 years, exhausting everything in his power to establish an absolute system of one-man rule. He announced a new constitution, which allowed him to appoint and dismiss officials under a single party presidential system. He was nominated as both president and prime minister. And he was warranted authority to dissolve the People’s Assembly. Following Egypt’s scandalous defeat against Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, Nasser stepped down to the dismay of the people chanting his name in…
