A leading Egyptian opposition movement wants to take legal steps against the president’s son and likely successor.
A leading Egyptian opposition movement is planning to take the president’s son to court, questioning the sources of his wealth and the legality of his current official positions.
Abd Al-Halim Qindil, the general coordinator of the Kifaya Movement, said his movement plans to take legal measures against Gamal Mubarak, the son and likely successor of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The charges against Mubarak the son concern the sources of his wealth and his official capacities, which Qindil says have no legal or constitutional basis.
Kifaya has formed a legal committee to examine the tools and means to level the charges against Gamal Mubarak and bring him before a court of law, Qindil told several media outlets.
But George Ishaq, one of the founders of the Kifaya movement said the idea is still in its initial stages and the movement has not discussed the details of such measures.
"The speech is of Abd Al-Halim Qindil himself, but if the committee accepts what he says, I accept it," Ishaq told The Media Line. "Without the committee accepting it, I cannot comment."
Generally speaking, the Kifaya movement will not support Gamal Mubarak’s candidacy for presidency, because it opposes any form of power inheritance. They are expressing grievances against Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution, which places obstacles for any independent candidate and makes it virtually impossible for them to run without the blessing of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
The article stipulates that an independent candidate must receive the endorsement of 250 elected members from Egypt’s representative bodies, which includes at least 65 endorsements from the People’s Assembly, 25 endorsements from the Shoura Council and 10 Local Council endorsements.
Kifaya is pushing for this article to be abolished, as well as Article 77, which says the president can be elected repeatedly without a limitation on the number of terms.
Kifaya, or the Egyptian Movement for Change, is a grassroots coalition formed in 2004 that opposes Hosni Mubarak’s regime and inheritance of power.
Ishaq said the movement does not plan to endorse any candidate in the upcoming elections unless articles 76 and 77 are amended.
"If they change the article we will consider it. We’ve discussed this with a famous person in Egypt, who we will nominate if article 76 is changed," he said, but refused to reveal the potential candidate’s identity.
"Kifaya’s influence is declining at the moment. Their golden age was in 2005-2006 but since then the movement has waned. Even though a number of its activists are still there, many others are no longer active and some have even left and adopted a different position," Dr. Gamal Soltan, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told The Media Line.
Despite this, Soltan said Kifaya was an important contributor to the public debate in Egypt.
Regarding Gamal Mubarak, Soltan said he has an increasing influence in Egyptian politics.
"He’s very instrumental in running the NDP and he’s been affective in inspiring a number of foreign policies applied by the current government," Soltan explained.
"Whether he will run for the office of the president in 2011 is difficult to say. Many people don’t like the idea of him succeeding his father, others think it could be a good idea to have a president from a civilian rather than a military background and others say that bringing him to the presidency within a broader reform agenda would be better for the future."
Gamal Mubarak also enjoys support among the business community and the upper-middle classes who benefited from economic reform policies that he applied in recent years, Soltan added.
Gamal Mubarak, 46, is the younger of two of Mubarak’s sons. He is currently the general secretary of the policy committee in the ruling NDP and it is widely believed that the president is grooming him to be the next Egyptian president. This has drawn anger from opposition groups who do not want an inheritance of power.
Hosni Mubarak has been in power since 1981 and has been accused of running an autocratic rule and criticized for human-rights abuses and failing to cancel the emergency law, which has been in place since 1981.
Qindil is demanding Gamal Mubarak publicize the origins of his wealth, estimated to be worth some $750 million.
"As to the political aspect, Gamal Mubarak has appropriated several political titles without any right and without any provision in the constitution or in Egyptian law," Qindil told media outlets.
"He heads meetings of cabinet ministers and governors; prepares constitutional programs; and makes political and managerial decisions which, according to law, only the president or the prime minister can make. His position in the party as secretary of the political committee does not grant him the legal right in any of his political maneuvers."
He further argued that decisions being made by the president’s son were harming Egypt’s economic and political life.
Presidential elections are scheduled to take place in Egypt in 2011.