Bush & Free Elections Elsewhere

(CBS)  Tom Fenton covered the major news events in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Africa during his 34-year career as a CBS News correspondent. He writes about world affairs from his Listening Post in London and other locations around the world.

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First, it was Afghanistan, a primitive, impoverished country with a long history of civil wars and violence. That country's first free and democratic presidential election last year was an historic achievement.

This year, it was the turn of Iraq, where millions of people risked their lives to go to the polls in their first free and democratic elections for half a century. That was also a stunning achievement. Even the skeptical Europeans were impressed.

The Palestinians also held democratic elections - to replace the crony regime of the late Yasser Arafat.

And now, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the Arab world's longest serving autocratic ruler, has just called for an amendment to his country's constitution to allow more than one candidate to run in the presidential election this September.

That, too, is a surprising breakthrough. Mubarak has been the sole candidate in the four presidential "referendums" Egypt has held since he took power in 1981, after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.

All of these are major developments in a part of the world where democracy has hitherto failed to take root, and they all have one thing in common: They are the direct result of the Bush administration's policies.

The president has been roundly criticized at home and vilified abroad for his muscular foreign policy, his willingness to use force, and his ambition to spread democracy throughout what he calls the Greater Middle East. But what his critics have been slow to see and even slower to acknowledge is that this aspect of Bush foreign policy seems to be working.

As one human rights activist said in Egypt - after she heard President Mubarak's historic announcement - it was as if the dungeon gate had been opened. Now she could breathe fresh air.

However, the candidate who is considered the most credible opponent to President Sadat was recently imprisoned on what appear to be trumped up charges of collecting false signatures to register his party. The arrest of Ayman Nour brought sharp criticism from the Bush Administration and led to cancellation of a visit to Egypt by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mubarak's call for multi-candidate elections - an announcement carried live on Egyptian television, and one which was as a complete surprise to the public - inspired hope among his critics. Activist Aida Seif el-Dawla said, "This concession is made to the United States of America… Let us wait and see because a free campaign of more than one candidate requires more than a statement from President (Mubarak)."

It is too soon to declare the Bush policy a success. Events must still play out, and all of these developments are only tentative steps on the rocky road to real democracy in the Middle East. But clearly, there is something in the air.


By Tom Fenton