Egypt spy chief's presidency campaign shortlived

Cairo: Activists launched last week a poster campaign backing Egypt's intelligence chief General Omar Sulaiman for the 2011 presidency, a move to head off an ongoing campaign for President Hosni Mubarak's son as the next leader.

But within hours of plastering posters on bridges and walls of Cairo's streets, online coverage of the Sulaiman campaign was halted with no explanation, a move one publishing expert attributed to official efforts to prevent the campaign spreading.

Talk that Jamal Mubarak, 46, could succeed his father has gathered momentum since the president had surgery in March in Germany and because of a poster campaign backing him in 2011.

Officials deny any role in the campaign backing Jamal.

But the pro-Sulaiman campaign aimed to derail support for the president's son and sought to show divisions existed between the army and his business allies.

In a statement issued online but which was later withdrawn, the pro-Sulaiman anonymous activists appealed to Egypt's "honourable army" to save the country from "the shame and disgrace of succession which the president's son seeks". "The way to deal with the succession project of Jamal Mubarak and his business clout, is for Omar Sulaiman to lead a transitional government," they said.

Analysts have long thought Sulaiman, who is in his mid-70s and known to be a close family friend of the Mubaraks, was a likely successor. But he has never expressed any wish to run for president.

Real alternative

Mubarak, 82 and in power since 1981, has not said if he will seek a sixth term in 2011. Both he and his son deny succession plans.

The activists splashed Cairo's downtown and the upscale Maadi district with posters of the general wearing sunglasses and saluting with his right arm. A poster slogan said: "Omar Sulaiman the real alternative as president of the republic".

Launched on Thursday, the campaign hit the streets while the the president, his son, and Sulaiman, were in Washington for the launching of direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

"A significant time to put these posters up to signal a new direction from the public while Mubarak is outside Egypt," said political analyst Diaa Rashwan, adding that the campaign is likely to grab Washington's attention while Sulaiman is there.

Born in 1936, Sulaiman served in the military before becoming Egypt's spy chief in 1993. With considerable influence over the country's internal affairs, he is seen as a challenge the army could mount to prevent a father-son succession.

The independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm had carried a story online about the Sulaiman campaign but the report was then taken down from the newspaper's website without explanation.

"There is a censorship ban on all papers not to publish anything on the Omar Sulaiman campaign," said Hisham Qasim, a former publisher of Al Masry Al Youm.

He told Reuters the paper had printed 30,000 copies with a report on the Sulaiman campaign that were confiscated late on Thursday by state security, adding that no paper was allowed to publish on the issue. Security sources had no comment.

"Omar Sulaiman is in all likelihood Egypt's next president after Hosni Mubarak," Qasim said. "He is the most suitable figure to rule from the military."