Hosni Mubarak

It's election time in Egypt. But aside from the banners everywhere (all displaying the incumbent and his message) you wouldn't know it by asking the man on the street. Officials estimate that as little as 30% of voters actually turned out at the polls. The problem is that everybody already knows who the winner is. Voting against this guy would be like placing a bet on last years world cup loser.

This is in fact the first actual multi-party democratic election in Egypts history. Mr Mubarak, who has been in power for 24 years, is running for another six-year term against eight other candidates. His chances of losing are slim. Despite the Egyptian Judiciary committee overruling the ban: International monitors were not allowed to observe the elections! As you can imagine there are already reports of widespread abuses.

But even if people were motivated to vote I'm not sure they would change their leadership. In such a turbulent region can you really blame anyone that just wants a little stability?