Saying he was answering the “call of God and the nation,” Mubarak said, “I am aware that my mission has not yet been completed and so decided to be at the heart of the next phase I have decided to run for another term and will seek the support of the people.”

Mubarak, 77, has already served 24 years in office and is now seeking a fifth six-year term. After first winning the presidency following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, Mubarak has been confirmed in office by a series of yes-no referendums in which he invariably won well over 90% of ballots cast.

The president later added that he is “committed to continuing to build a modern society, a growing economy for free citizens in a democratic nation. Your troubles are my troubles; your concerns are my concerns; your ambitions are my ambitions.”

Mubarak’s apparent comfort with Western-style campaign trappings surprised many observers, who noted this is the first time in his political career he will face a slate of opponents. The president chose his old high school in his hometown of Shebin El-Kom as the venue for his first campaign speech. He appeared at ease and smiled often in the course of the hour-long address to NDP faithful, who included his wife Suzanne and sons Gamal and Alaa, as he recounted his achievements in office and spoke of the lessons he had learned in life and in office. At the end of the nationally televised live address, Mubarak plunged into the crowd as he stepped off the podium to hug and shake hands with supporters.

The speech contained hints at what could become key campaign promises as the president pledged he would scrap the emergency law in place since 1981 and replace it with permanent anti-terror legislation to “besiege terrorism, uproot it and drain it of resources.”

Mubarak also pledged to introduce legislation that would curb the powers of the presidency and spoke of restoring “checks and balances” on the powers of the executive branch of government (which includes the presidency and the president-appointed Cabinet).

If elected, analysts expect Mubarak will appoint a vice president and give new powers to both the prime minister and the People’s Assembly.

Under the Constitution, the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will be required to resign before election day.

Defying predictions that the campaign period could be a dull one in the face of an opposition boycott, candidates lined up on the first day of nominations to challenge the president. At least five party leaders and three independents filed papers by early afternoon.

Of the eight, only controversial El-Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour is seen as a serious challenger, though political analysts contend he lacks a wide base of support outside the capital city’s circle of liberal activists. Other contenders include Osama Shaltout (Al-Takaful Party), Helmi Salem (Al-Ahrar Al-Ishtrakeyeen Party), Wahid Fakhry Al-Oksory (Misr Al-Arabi Al-Ishtiraki Party) and parliamentarian Talaat Sadat of Al-Ahrar Party.

Opposition powerhouses Al-Wafd, Al-Tagammuah and the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party — the nation’s three oldest and most respected opposition parties — all pledged to boycott the poll.

Mubarak and Nour have already clashed over who has the right to use the Islamic Crescent symbol in their campaign literature and next to their names on ballots. (The electoral law allows the use of symbols to help illiterate voters identify the candidate for whom they wish to cast their ballot.)

Both men claimed to have been the first to have arrived at the Presidential Election Commission to file their nomination papers, and both claim to have chosen the Crescent as their symbols.

A Ministry of Information statement released in the afternoon after Mubarak filed suggested the president had done so first. At press time, Nour claimed the notion that the president had arrived first and thus claimed the popular Crescent as his symbol was “an international scandal. I was number one in front of cameras and all people.”

Nour said he chose the palm tree as his second choice of symbols.

Welcome to the hustings, gentlemen.