Cairo - Dueling websites supporting the two names most
commonly bandied as likely successors to Egypt's 81-year-old
president, Hosny Mubarak, have come online in recent weeks.
The online campaigning has put a finer point on a question that
has vexed Egyptians for years.
Since Gamal Mubarak, the president's younger son, became head of
the ruling National Democratic Party's Policies Secretariat in 2002,
it became common wisdom that he was being groomed to succeed his
father.
At other times, the stock of Egyptian spymaster Omar Suleiman, 73,
has risen among Cairo's cafe pundits, who argue that his role as an
interlocutor in Israeli-Palestinian talks has made him Washington's
preferred candidate.
Pundits rarely mention other names from within the government, let
alone from the opposition.
Egypt's next presidential elections are not until 2011. Mubarak
won the 2005 polls, the first in which he ran against other
candidates, with 88.6 per cent of the vote.
Less than a year later, he promised to continue as president 'as
long as (his) heart is beating and (he) is breathing.'
But even Mubarak's most ardent supporters allow that he cannot
live forever, and debating who will eventually succeed him has long
been an Egyptian pastime.
Young opposition activists in Egypt have used blogs and social-
networking sites to organize protests and to call attention to their
causes for years, but have never seriously supported an individual
candidate to succeed Mubarak.
In recent weeks, however, there has been a rush of new online
efforts in support of Suleiman and Gamal Mubarak, both solidly
identified with the regime.
'We don't want Gamal, we don't want the Muslim Brotherhood, we
want Omar Suleiman,' proclaims the masthead of a mysterious new
Egyptian blog.
'The push for inheritance is in full swing, with State Security as
its official sponsor,' the anonymous blogger asserts, referring to
Egypt's domestic intelligence service, State Security Investigations.
'Opposition parties cannot overcome their personal differences and
narrow ideologies ... So from whence will Egypt's next president
come?'
Similar campaigns have appeared on the social networking site,
Facebook.
'I proudly support Omar Suleiman to be the next president of
Egypt,' one such group is called.
Gamal Mubarak's supporters have launched counter-attacks.
'Gamal Mubarak for president - expanding the Egyptian dream,' and
'Lovers and supporters of Gamal Mubarak,' are only two examples of
several Facebook groups dedicated to supporting the ruling party's
46-year-old assistant secretary-general.
'We don't dream of you, we demand you, O Gamal!' members of the
latter group, which has attracted some 3,500 members, proclaims.
'Most probably Egypt's coming president will come from the same
establishment as his predecessors,' said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at
Cairo's government-funded al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic
Studies.
'Suleiman would be the candidate with the highest chances because
of his military background and his experience in dealing with
complicated regional files, such as the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict,' he added.
'Of course, such campaigns might be backed up by the candidate
himself,' says Rashwan. 'And now the Internet is a fast, liberal way
to express oneself and sway public opinion.'
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