Egypt: New National Party will be headed by Talaat El Sadat

It was announced on 13th April that the former ruling National Democratic Party is being recreated as the New National Party. It will be headed by Talaat El Sadat, who had been critical of the policies of the old party.

The cabinet has approved an electronic voting system for Egyptians living abroad. Egypt has nominated Mustafa El Fiki as its candidate to succeed Amr Mousa as the next secretary general of the Arab League. The choice has provoked derision. El Fiki had been appointed by former president Hosni Mubarak as the head of the now dissolved Shura Council's foreign relations committee. He was also beneficiary of one of the most blatant and outrageous pieces of electoral chicanery. In the 2005 election, he was soundly beaten by the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Gamal Hishmat in the Damanhur constituency. The electoral officers, however, merely switched the result so that El Fiki got Hishmat's votes and vice versa. The switch was exposed by an electoral monitor Noha El Zeini but this did not deter El Fiki from taking his seat.

The military government has said it will remove some provincial governors appointed by Mubarak. Most of these were either former senior police or army officers.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

© 2011 Menas Associates

Conspiracy theorist believe the next Egyptian president will be Washington's man

It is widely believed by conspiracy theorists in the Middle East, and there are many, that the next president of Egypt must enjoy the blessing of the US. This is not a view that emerges out of the latest batch of cables from the US embassy in Cairo released by WikiLeaks.

What the cables reveal is the assessment of successive US ambassadors to Egypt that President Mubarak is someone who will not be pushed around on matters of human rights, democratisation or other aspects of how Egypt runs its affairs. And furthermore, that the successive ambassadors do not pretend to know who might be the next president after Mubarak. A number of names are put forward as possibilities: the president's younger son Gamal; the intelligence chief Omar Suleiman; the “charismatic” head of the Arab League, Amr Mousa [this was back in 2007]; or some unknown military man.

It has been said that President Mubarak will not step down but is more likely to die in office.

In addition, the previous US ambassador Frank Ricciardone suggests that the next president, whoever it might be, could have an "initial anti-American tone in his public rhetoric" to win over the Egyptian street."

The conspiracy theorists might be unwilling or unable to take the cables at face value. They will persist in their conviction that the next president of Egypt will be Washington's man. That is certainly not the view of Washington.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

© 2010 Menas Associates