Mubarak came to power because he was VP at the time of Anwar Sadat's 1981 assassination. In 1987, 1993, and 1999 he was "elected" by a referendum in which he was the sole candidate—hardly a democratic election in any sense of the word. He did allow opposition candidate Ayman Nour to run in the 2005 elections, but they were hardly free and fair, and shortly after the elections Nour was arrested an imprisoned.
By contrast, both Mugabe (in 1980) and Putin (in 2000) were initially elected, even if they both subsequently perverted the electoral process.
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