Hosni Mubarak life and biography

Hosni Mubarak, born Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is the fourth and current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has been the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt since 14 October 1981, when he succeeded to that office following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Hosni Mubarak was trained as a pilot and rose in the ranks of Egypt's air force during the 1960s and '70s. President Sadat named Mubarak to be his vice president in 1975, and in 1978 Mubarak became the vice chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP), the governing political party in Egypt. When Sadat was assassinated, Mubarak became the chairman of the NDP as well. Mubarak has been an old-style strongman with full control of the government. Running uncontested, Mubarak won the presidency in national referenda in 1987, 1993 and 1999; after a change in laws, he won running against token opposition in 2005. During his presidency, Hosni Mubarak has focused on economic growth and inched toward political reform, but any economic gains in the 1990s were offset by criticisms that Egypt was a near-dictatorship; indeed, Mubarak never lifted the state of emergency imposed after Sadat's assassination. In February of 2005 Mubarak announced plans for a September 2005 election that would be Egypt's first-ever multi-candidate contest for the presidency.

On 7 September 2005 he handily won his fifth consecutive term in those elections, but the victory was clouded by low voter turnout, reports of fraud and the imprisonment of his political rival, Ayman Nour. Since then, Mubarak's presidency has been dominated by pressures for political reform and by Mubarak's love/hate relationship with the United States, which has been a steady provider of military aid. Mubarak has been rebuked by American leaders, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for his lack of "commitment" to democracy, but he has also been an important U.S. ally in the region, especially during the U.S. war in Iraq. Egyptians took to the streets in January of 2011 to protest his rule; Mubarak at first shuffled his cabinet, then finally was forced to announce on 1 February 2011 that he would step down at the end of his term that September.

Hosni Mubarak's wife is Suzanne Thabet Mubarak... Their son, Gamal Mubarak, was considered to be Hosni's likely successor until the revolts of 2011 changed that line of thinking.

On February 1, 2011, Mubarak announced that he will not seek another term in the upcoming presidential election.

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