ABSTRACT
In October 1999, the results of the general election in India demonstrated that the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and its coalition allies had secured enough votes to form a relatively stable government; in the previous month, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was re-elected, unopposed, to yet another term in office. Although the specifics of each of these elections might have differed (one was a genuine election) both events constitute yet another significant point in the respective political trajectories of these two countries, trajectories which have their origins in the early nationalist period.
