Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has won his county’s historic presidential election. Mr. Mubarak has governed Egypt for the past 24 years without democratic elections. This is the first time for Egyptians to vote for who they want to be their president. An election official, who did not want to give his name, said Mr. Mubarak got 80 percent of the votes. The main opposition candidate Ayman Nour took 12 percent of the vote. He was almost unknown until last week. It now looks like he will have a big role in Egypt’s post-election politics.

Many people have said the election was not fair. Mr. Nour has already demanded a rerun of the poll because of abuses of the voting laws. The deputy head of his party told reporters: “After the grave violations that influenced the…election process...we demanded, out of concern [for the] national interest, that elections be repeated.” There were widespread reports of bribery, pressure and bullying for voters to support Mr. Mubarak. Voter turnout was also very poor at around 30 percent.

WARM-UPS

1. MY VOTING HISTORY: In pairs / groups, talk about your voting or election history. What is the first election you can remember? How many times have you voted? Have you voted in school elections or in popularity polls in magazines? Is voting important?

2. DEMOCRACY: In pairs / groups, talk about whether the world is changing and whether more countries are becoming democratic. Talk about what you know about the history of democracy in these countries. Are they democratic now?

USA Egypt Ukraine Venezuela South Africa India

Poland Iraq North Korea Iran China Your country

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Hosni Mubarak / Egypt / elections / democracy / voting / presidents / politics / election processes / voter turnout / election issues

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. EGYPT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with Egypt. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. OPINIONS: Do you agree with these opinions on Egypt’s election? Talk about them with your partner(s).

1. Egypt’s election is the most important event in the Middle East in recent years.
2. The election was a mess. People were paid to vote for Mubarak.
3. First Egypt, next Iraq and then the whole of the Middle East.
4. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s second largest party, was banned. Not good.
5. Democracy does not work in the Middle East.
6. Only 30 percent of people voted. Egyptians aren’t so interested in elections.
7. Nothing in Egypt will change because of this election.
8. Hosni Mubarak is very brave for calling such an election.

6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think democracy will be common in the Middle East within ten years. Students B think it will take 100 years for Middle Eastern countries to accept democracy. Change partners often.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Hosni Mubarak has easily won his country’s election.	T / F
b.	Mr. Mubarak has governed Egypt for almost a decade.	T / F
c.	Mr. Mubarak reportedly got 80 percent of the vote.	T / F
d.	The poll was only Egypt’s third ever presidential election.	T / F
e.	Many people congratulated Mr. Mubarak for a fair election.	T / F
f.	The opposition candidate has accepted the results.	T / F
g.	Voters voted without being bribed, pressured or bullied.	T / F
h.	Nearly all voters in Egypt voted.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	historic	universal
b.	governed	rival
c.	official	ruled
d.	opposition	election
e.	role	weak
f.	poll	momentous
g.	grave	illegalities
h.	violations	organizer
i.	widespread	serious
j.	poor	part

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	Mubarak has won his county’s	Egypt for the past 24 years
b.	Mr. Mubarak has governed	of bribery
c.	vote for who they want	post-election politics
d.	The main opposition	historic presidential election
e.	he will have a big role in Egypt’s	the election was not fair
f.	Many people have said	at around 30 percent
g.	abuses of the voting	influenced the election process
h.	grave violations that	to be their president
i.	widespread reports	laws
j.	Voter turnout was also very poor	candidate

WHILE READING / LISTENING

SYNONYM FILL: Place the number of the synonym group in the correct gap (It is not important to guess a correct word - any of the synonyms from each group could be put into the relevant gap).

Egypt’s Mubarak in landslide election win

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has won his county’s ____ presidential election. Mr. Mubarak has ____ Egypt for the past 24 years without democratic elections. This is the first time for Egyptians to vote for who they want to be their president. An election ____, who did not want to give his name, said Mr. Mubarak got 80 percent of the votes. The main opposition candidate Ayman Nour took 12 percent of the vote. He was almost unknown until last week. It now looks like he will have a big ____ in Egypt’s post-election politics.

Many people have said the election was not ____. Mr. Nour has already ____ a rerun of the poll because of abuses of the voting laws. The deputy ____ of his party told reporters: “After the grave violations that influenced the…election process...we demanded, out of concern [for the] national interest, that elections be repeated.” There were ____ reports of bribery, pressure and bullying for voters to support Mr. Mubarak. Voter turnout was also very poor at around 30 percent.

1 official organizer administrator representative	2 head leader boss chief	3 role part position duty	4 historic landmark watershed milestone
5 widespread universal extensive rampant	6 demanded called for requested ordered	7 fair honest open proper	8 governed ruled led controlled

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘national’ and ‘interest’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. SYNOMYM FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the synonym fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “EGYPT” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about Egypt, Hosni Mubarak and democracy.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

historic governed first time official candidate role

fair abuses deputy national bullying poor

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What did you think when you first read this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. What do you know about Hosni Mubarak?
4. What do you think of the democratic elections in Egypt?
5. Egypt’s second biggest political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, was banned from the election. What do you think?
6. Do you think Egypt’s election will have a positive effect in the rest of the Middle East?
7. What is your view of politics in Egypt?
8. How do you think the Middle East would change if all countries held democratic elections?
9. How do you think the world would change if all countries in the Middle East held democratic elections?
10. Is it a problem that there were reports of bribery and bullying?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. What do you know about Egypt?
4. How important is Egypt in the Arab world?
5. Do you think Mr. Mubarak is a good leader?
6. Do you think the election should be rerun?
7. What do you think of the fact that voter turnout was only 30 percent?
8. Do you think politics in Egypt will now be more open?
9. Is the election process in your country perfect?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

ELECTIONS: In pairs / groups, talk about elections in your country. Are they perfect? Are there things wrong with them? Write down some suggestions about what needs to be changed to make the system better.

Point	Things wrong	Suggestions for improvements
The age from which people can vote
The number of political parties to vote for
Equal access to television and the media for all political parties
The intervals between elections
The number of years a leader can govern
Bribery and corruption

Change partners and show each other your suggestions for change.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Egypt’s Mubarak in landslide election win

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has won his county’s ________ presidential election. Mr. Mubarak has ________ Egypt for the past 24 years without democratic elections. This is the first time for Egyptians to ________ for who they want to be their president. An election official, who did not want to give his name, said Mr. Mubarak got 80 percent of the votes. The ________ opposition candidate Ayman Nour ________ 12 percent of the vote. He was almost ________ until last week. It now looks like he will have a big ________ in Egypt’s post-election politics.

Many people have said the election was not ________. Mr. Nour has already demanded a ________ of the poll because of ________ of the voting laws. The deputy head of his party told reporters: “After the ________ violations that influenced the…election process...we demanded, out of concern [for the] ________ interest, that elections be repeated.” There were widespread reports of ________, pressure and bullying for voters to support Mr. Mubarak. Voter ________ was also very poor at around 30 percent.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on the Egyptian election. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. POSTER: Make a poster showing the levels of democracy in one country in the Middle East. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

4. DIARY / SCHEDULE: You live in Egypt. Write your diary/schedule entry for the day after the election. Is your country changing? Is the change good? What other changes do you hope will take place in Egypt over the coming years? Read what you wrote to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all write out similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. T

b. F

c. T

d. F

e. F

f. F

g. F

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	historic	momentous
b.	governed	ruled
c.	official	organizer
d.	opposition	rival
e.	role	part
f.	poll	election
g.	grave	serious
h.	violations	illegalities
i.	widespread	universal
j.	poor	weak

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	Mubarak has won his county’s	historic presidential election
b.	Mr. Mubarak has governed	Egypt for the past 24 years
c.	vote for who they want	to be their president
d.	The main opposition	candidate
e.	he will have a big role in Egypt’s	post-election politics
f.	Many people have said	the election was not fair
g.	abuses of the voting	laws
h.	grave violations that	influenced the election process
i.	widespread reports	of bribery
j.	Voter turnout was also very poor	at around 30 percent

SYNONYM FILL:

Egypt’s Mubarak in landslide election win

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has won his county’s ---4--- presidential election. Mr. Mubarak has ---8--- Egypt for the past 24 years without democratic elections. This is the first time for Egyptians to vote for who they want to be their president. An election ---1---, who did not want to give his name, said Mr. Mubarak got 80 percent of the votes. The main opposition candidate Ayman Nour took 12 percent of the vote. He was almost unknown until last week. It now looks like he will have a big ---3--- in Egypt’s post-election politics.

Many people have said the election was not ---7---. Mr. Nour has already ---6--- a rerun of the poll because of abuses of the voting laws. The deputy ---2--- of his party told reporters: “After the grave violations that influenced the…election process...we demanded, out of concern [for the] national interest, that elections be repeated.” There were ---5--- reports of bribery, pressure and bullying for voters to support Mr. Mubarak. Voter turnout was also very poor at around 30 percent.

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