Cairo: With Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, gearing up to vote for president in 2011, opposition and protest groups have intensified their efforts to field popular figures for the top post against President Hosni Mubarak's younger son, who it is widely believed will succeed his father.
Members of Al Wafd, Egypt's oldest liberal party, recently asked Mohammad Al Baradei, who is currently director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to run for the president in the name of Al Wafd. Al Baradei, a law professor by profession, has yet to comment on the offer. His term in the IAEA ends next month.
In recent weeks, the Egyptian opposition has stepped up a campaign against an alleged plan by Mubarak, 82, to hand over power to his son Jamal. Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, has not designated a successor.
Both he and Jamal, a Western-educated banker, have vehemently denied claims of hereditary succession.
Against handover
The members of the National Democratic Party support President Mubarak as a strong leader and ruler, said Safwat Al Sherif, secretary-general of the ruling party, as he announced details for the party's annual congress due later this month.
According to him, the party does not pay attention to the claims about hereditary succession. This is media nonsense, he said.
Unimpressed, Ayman Nour, an opposition activist who had trailed a distant second to Mubarak in Egypt's first competitive presidential election in 2005, has set up an alliance, including the banned-but-strong Muslim Brotherhood, to campaign against the alleged handover of power to Mubarak's son.
Mubarak, an ex-air force commander, has not yet said if he will seek a sixth term in power. Under recent amendments to the Egyptian constitution, independents who want to run for president, have to get at least 250 endorsements from the parliament and local councils.
Bids to import Egyptian expatriates to stand in the 2011 presidential election has drawn criticism. Nominating Al Baradei or Ahmad Zeweil (an Egyptian-born American researcher awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry) exposes political parties' bankruptcy, wrote Mohammad Al Baz in the independent newspaper Al Khamis.
Each has excelled in his field, not in politics. In addition, each has been away from Egypt for many years. When we ask them to come and rule Egypt, the situation seems as if we are importing a head of state.
According to Amr Al Shubki, a political analyst, the opposition's bid to field non-member candidates for presidency is a sign of a problem. This approach reflects a serious crisis inside Egypt's political parties, which have been weakened under the security restrictions imposed on them, he told Gulf News.
Having failed to groom influential leaders and presidential hopefuls, these parties have turned their attention to candidates raised in liberal environments.
Succession: who's next?
Jamal Mubarak
Born in 1963, Jamal is the younger son of President Hosni Mubarak. He attended St George's College in Cairo for his early education and later joined the American University in Cairo where he studied business.
He started his career, working for the Bank of America in Cairo before moving to the London branch. He worked mainly in the field of investment banking.
Unlike his older brother, Ala'a, Jamal dabbled in politics and soon rose in the echelons of his father's National Democratic Party, becoming chief of the party's powerful Politics Committee in 2002.
Official media often show Jamal touring the country and attending meetings along with senior government officials.
Mohammad Al Baradei
Born in Cairo in June 1942, Al Baradei has been the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency since December 1997.
He studied law at Cairo University, Egypt's most prestigious public university, where he earned a Bachelors degree in 1962. He obtained a PhD in international law at New York University's School of Law in 1974.
His diplomatic career began in 1964 in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry where he served in Egypt's UN delegation in New York. From 1974 to 1978, he was a special assistant to the Egyptian Foreign Minister.
In 1980, he became a senior fellow in charge of the international law programme at the UN Institute for Training and Research.
From 1981 to 1987, he taught international law at New York University's School of Law.
In 1984, Al Baradei became a senior staff member of the IAEA Secretariat, serving as the agency's legal adviser (1984 to 1993) and assistant director general for external relations (1993 to 1997).
In October 2005, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
