Egypt is said to be holding referendums regarding constitutional reform.  This comes after almost 30 years of an autocratic regime lead by President Hosni Mubarak.  Following the referendum, there will be elections for the upper and lower house.  The reforms would make it easier for people to run for president, whereas before it was next to impossible for anyone outside of the ruling party to run, and also limit the amount of terms a president can serve and the length of these terms.  With the reform, presidents will be limited to two four year terms.  This will allow for more democratic political institutions in Egypt allowing people to vote for whomever they want and making it so that the president cannot stay in power too long and become corrupt.  I think that this is a major step for democracy in the Middle East because the people of the other Middle Eastern countries will see how the democratic institutions work in Egypt and will demand it from their governments.  The one problem with how Egypt is handling the election is that they are holding it too quickly.  The only parties that have the resources to mount an election campaign is the National Democratic Party, formerly Mubarak’s party, and the Muslim Brotherhood, who have stated that they are not interested in pursuing a majority in Parliament or the Presidency.  Seeing as the other opposition parties do not have the resources to campaign for the election, the democratic aspect of the election is limited.  Even though any party can get votes, the only ones with enough resources to campaign for their platforms is the one that formed the autocratic government and one that has no interest in leading.  Egypt would be better off waiting a while longer to ensure that enough opposing parties are able to run successful campaigns because it would allow the voters to pick the party that best fits their ideology because they would actually know about the parties.