Hosni Mubarak stumbled on power following the assassination of Sadat in a referendum in which he was the only candidate.

Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed Egypt's relationship with Israel yet eased the tensions with Egypt's Arab neighbours. Domestically, Mubarak faced serious problems. Even though farm and industry output expanded, the economy couldn't keep pace with the people boom. Mass poverty and unemployment led rural families to stream into cities like Cairo where they wound up in crowded slums, barely managing to survive. On 25 February 1986 Security Police started rioting, protesting against reports that their term of duty was to be extended from 3 to 4 years. Hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and casinos were attacked in Cairo and there were riots in other cities. Per day time curfew was imposed. It took the army 3 days to replace order. 107 individuals were killed. In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, terrorist attacks in Egypt became numerous and severe, and began to target Christian Copts, foreign tourists and government officials. In the 1990s an Islamist group, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, engaged in a protracted campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the greatest sector of Egypt's economy—tourismand consequently to the government, but it addittionally devastated the livelihoods of many of the people on whom the group depended for support. During Mubarak's reign, the political scene was dominated by the National Democratic Party, that was produced by Sadat in 1978. It passed the 1993 Syndicates Law, 1995 Press Law, and 1999 Nongovernmental Associations Law which hampered freedoms of association and expression by imposing new regulations and draconian penalties on violations.[citation needed] As a result, by the late 1990s parliamentary politics had become virtually irrelevant and alternative avenues for political expression were curtailed as well. ----

---- Cairo grew right into a metropolitan area with a population of over 20 million On 17 November 1997, 62 people, mostly tourists, were massacred near Luxor. In late February 2005, Mubarak announced a reform of the presidential election law, paving just how for multi-candidate polls for initially because the 1952 movement. However, the newest law placed restrictions on the candidates, and generated Mubarak's easy re-election victory.[74] Voter turnout was less than 25%. Election observers also alleged government interference in the election process. Following the election, Mubarak imprisoned Ayman Nour, the runner-up. Human Rights Watch's 2006 report on Egypt detailed serious human rights violations, including routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. In 2007, Amnesty International released a written report alleging that Egypt had become an international centre for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often within the War on Terror. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to the report. Constitutional changes voted on 19 March 2007 prohibited parties from using religion as a cause for political activity, allowed the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law, authorised broad police powers of arrest and surveillance, and gave the president power to dissolve parliament and end judicial election monitoring. In 2009, Dr. Ali El Deen Hilal Dessouki, Media Secretary of the National Democratic Party (NDP), described Egypt as a "pharaonic" political system, and democracy as a "long-term goal ".Dessouki also stated that "the actual center of power in Egypt could be the military ".