Hosni Mubarak

Position Former president, Egypt
Biography: Egypt’s next presidential election is planned for September 2011.

The ruling National Democratic Party is due to meet in July to choose its candidate. Speculation has been rife in the past couple of years over whether the incumbent 82-year-old Mubarak will stand for re-election. Mubarak has ruled the Arab state since 1981 and his health has deteriorated in recent years. His son Gamal Mubarak has been widely tipped to succeed him and he has assumed a much higher political role of late. But as cables published by whistleblowing website Wikileaks in December revealed, the US diplomatic community expects Mubarak to win a sixth term and to stay in power for the remainder of his life.

Although the country has kept a multi-party system under Mubarak’s rule, curbs on the opposition have prevented democracy from flourishing. There were widespread complaints of electoral fraud in November’s parliamentary elections.