Cairo: Egyptian police had detained five bloggers from a protest group for painting slogans against a potential hereditary handover of power in this country of 80 million, sources in the group said on Friday.

The five, including two students at Cairo University, were arrested for painting graffiti reading “No to hereditary succession” on the walls of buildings in central Cairo, they added.

Over recent years, speculation has been rife that President Hosni Mubarak, 81, has been grooming his younger son Jamal, a banker-turned-politician, to take over after him. Both Mubaraks have repeatedly denied such claims.

“The five people were arrested after attending a rally organized by Al Ghad (tomorrow) Party to discuss the virulent attacks mounted by the (ruling) National Democratic Party against opposition during its annual convention,” said Ahmed Maher, the coordinator-general of the April 6 Movement, to which the detainees belong.

“The group has contacted all human rights to defend the detainess and will press for their release,” Maher told Gulf News.

He added that the group in conjunction with rights activists will stage protests outside the Press Syndicate, the Bar association and the Chief Prosecutor’s office in central Cairo against the arrests.

There was no immediate comment from security agencies.

Late last month, Ayman Nour, an opposition leader and the founder of Al Ghad Party, set up an alliance of liberals and Islamists to block the alleged plan by Mubarak to pass on power to his 46-year-old son, who is an influential politician in the ruling party.

Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, has not designated a successor and has yet to say if he will seek a sixth six-year term after his current tenure ends in 2011.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has recently raised concerns among opposition when he was quoted as saying that he saw Mubarak the junior as a possibility in running for the presidency.

Last week, the opposition newspaper Al Wafd printed pictures of graffiti carrying the signature of the April 6 movement painted on walls near Cairo reading: “Here is Cairo, not Gabon”—in reference to Gabon where Ali Bongo became president last September in a controversial election after the death of his father who had ruled the country for 41 years.

Two days later, the same newspaper showed the walls with the graffiti removed.