NUBARIYA, Egypt (AP) – With cameras rolling, President Hosni Mubarak walked down a dirt road to a reed shack set up in front of a lush field, sat with a farmer and his wife and chatted over a glass of tea.

Mubarak, dressed in an open-collared blue shirt and jacket, said how much he loves the countryside, away from the city. Farm owner Kamal Abdel-Menem al-Maraghi, 45, described how he markets his crops grown in Nubariya, a huge area of reclaimed desert land on the edge of the Nile Delta.

Then they hugged, and Mubarak walked to a crowd of thousands of cheering and chanting supporters waiting in a nearby tent, where he delivered a speech on developing the agricultural sector and reiterated his central campaign promise: the creation of more than four million jobs in six years.

“An ambitious goal that will be realised with God’s help and with serious and tangible steps,” he called it.

It was a classic “man of the people” moment – something the leader who has ruled this country unquestioned for the past 24 years is suddenly doing a lot of.

There is little doubt that Mubarak will handily win September 7 presidential elections. But you wouldn’t know it from his campaign, which – with slick posters, carefully stage-managed events and even an emotional video about his life – has gone all out to reinvent the president’s image from distant, unchallenged ruler to popular candidate.

The campaign’s mere existence reflects the tides of change reshaping Egypt’s political landscape as the country prepares for its first ever multi-candidate presidential elections, which Mubarak’s supporters bill as a major reform step.

Having the president stump across the country to explain his programme and humbly seek the people’s support is new here – so is the increasingly bold public criticism directed at Mubarak’s regime by his opponents.

But some feel the colourful campaign, catchy slogans and mouthwatering promises are little more than cosmetic changes designed to create the illusion of democracy.

After all, Mubarak had 24 years to deliver the reforms he is promising, critics say, arguing the elections and campaign were designed to take the heat off Mubarak’s regime, under US pressure to bring democratic change – a charge that Mubarak and his supporters deny.

“The campaign is trying to erase the president’s history and to show us a new president, when it comes to his look, his rhetoric and the team working with him,” said Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst.

Billboards around Cairo depict the 77-year-old Mubarak looking robust in a white shirt and a tie. The slogan – “Leadership and crossing into the future” – gives a nod to Egyptians’ national pride in crossing the Suez Canal during the 1973 war with Israel, an operation in which Mubarak has won acclaim as air force commander.

Mubarak’s campaign headquarters in Cairo’s upscale Heliopolis neighbourhood has the feel of youth, modernity and corporate efficiency.

Young men and women in smart suits or jeans and T-shirts bustle about wearing green Mubarak pins on their chests. Party officials working with outside media consultants test material on focus groups, conduct polls and scour newspapers and the Internet for news about the president.

In one room, Egypt’s most prominent comedian, Adel Imam, seated next to Gamal Mubarak – the president’s son – smiled affectionately as he watched a video showing Mubarak and his wife lovingly talk about the early days of their marriage, a private side rarely seen by Egyptians.

The 15-minute documentary – in which viewers hear about the time Mubarak cried for not being able to leave his responsibilities at home and travel with his sick son – introduced Mubarak as a caring family man and a strong president capable of defending his country and refusing to give in to outside pressure.

Mubarak talks to his ruling party officials in Egypt’s provinces through videoconferences and delivers messages tailored for each sector of his audience: farmers, workers, youth. He ticks off his accomplishments, stresses his modest origins, acknowledges the people’s needs and promises a better future: more jobs, better housing and expanded water networks.

Critics are unconvinced, saying poverty, unemployment and corruption have been entrenched throughout the decades of Mubarak’s rule.

“The guy has offered what he thought were solutions, completely forgetting … that he is the one who has created the huge and horrific problems he’s now claiming he wants to solve,” government critic Ibrahim Eissa wrote of Mubarak in a recent issue of the newspaper Sawt al-Umma.

“The people are hungry for real, radical change,” Eissa said.

Mohammed Kamal, a ruling party official and member of the campaign team, said the critics haven’t read the president’s agenda carefully, which he said builds on Mubarak’s experience and accomplishments in the past 24 years.

“The platform … calls for restructuring the political system. It calls for more checks and balances between the different branches of power, giving Parliament more responsibility and oversight.

“It talks about ending the state of emergency.

It talks about more efforts to liberalise the media and citizens’ rights to get information,” he said. “All these are new ideas, big ideas, so it’s not cosmetic. The president is calling for real change.”

Mubarak’s bid also benefits from the weakness of his nine opponents. Only two are seen as real challengers, and even they are relatively little known among Egyptians.

Salah Mohammed Shukri, a retired civil servant and ruling party member, was among the thousands in Nubariya who listened to Mubarak’s promises of job creation – an issue that hit home with Shukri’s three sons, who are jobless despite holding university degrees.

“There are no jobs. There are opportunities only for those who have connections,” he said before the speech. “Still, President Hosni Mubarak is the best on the scene now.”