After three decades of ruling Egypt, Housney Moubarak was over thrown by the people of Egypt, and now they are writing a new stage in the modern history of Egypt.

Within few days Egypt will have a new president. He will not be Moubarak or one of his sons.

The people have broken the wall fear, went into the streets of Egypt raising the slogan “the people wants to over throw the system”. They won the first round of the battle, the head of the political system, Moubarak, is over thrown. But that does not mean the political system collapsed and a new system emerged. What it is possible to say is that the political system has been shaken strongly and it is swinging.

Many forces interfered in the revolution in Egypt to divert it toward the interests of the counter – revolution. These forces can be classified into two major groups, the internal forces which are represented by the army, and the political Islam parties. The second group is the foreign forces which are represented by USA and its allies (World Bank and IMF are included).

The army wants to preserve its control over the government through the new president, because the president was always a former army leader, Jamal Abed Al Naser, Anwar Al Sadat and Housney Moubarak.

The political Islam parties, who were allies to Sadat, then disagreed with and assassinated him, then allies with Moubarak and again disagreed with him, then in the last days of his ruling, tried to negotiate with him, wants to achieve their dream, to rule Egypt. Most of the events since the over threw of Moubarak and the control of The Supreme Council of The Armed Forces (SCAF) indicated to that there was a kind of an agreement between the SCAF and the political Islam parties to divide the authority between them. The political Islam parties take the parliament and the SCAF the presidency. It seems now that this agreement is not working any more and that is why tension floated on the surface between the two groups.

On the other side the foreign forces do not care about who may rule Egypt, as long as their interests are secured by the ruling class. That is why the foreign forces never stopped their supports to the ruling class in Egypt since Sadat till SCAF.

Here comes the intersection of the interests of internal and the foreign forces. Egypt represents what is called “the beating heart of the Arab world”. So who may control Egypt has bigger chance to have more influence in the Arab world and the events that are going on in it.

After breaking the wall of fear which was created by the oppressive political system, since Naser till the over throw of Moubarak, the people want to say their word in choosing the president of their country. It is the struggle among Islamist against secularist, revolutionaries against Moubarak era ministers. Or it is possible to say it a struggle among all of them because there is no clear alliance among them and this is noticeable from the programs of the candidates for the presidency. For the first time Egypt witnesses such mixture of candidates. More than 50% of the people, who have the right to vote, voted for the president who they think he may represent their ambitions. They chose only one of the 13 candidates. Every voter named the candidate he or she wanted him to be the president of Egypt. Strict measures were taken to prevent any fraud in results. One of these measures is that the electoral committee in every polling station will count the votes then the number of votes will be sent to the Senior Presidential elections Committee. The duty of this committee is limited to add the numbers they receive from the polling stations. This is one of the measures which gave credibility to the electoral process and at the same time gave confidence to the voter.

The candidate must have more that 50% of the total number of the votes to be the President. If he failed to have this percentage there will another voting round. Due to the high competition among the candidates, most surveys indicated to another round of voting.

Who the more than 50% will choose?

The Islamist candidates:

– Abed Moniem Aboul Fotoh: (60 years old, doctor) he was a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood until last year when the group sacked him because he decided to run for the presidency without getting the approval from the party.

He is the head of Arab Medical Union and presenting himself as a moderate Islamist who can unify all Egyptians including the Christians. He stands as independent.

– Mhamed Mursi: (61 years old) head of Muslim brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party. He replaces its disqualified contender Khairat Al Shater. Mursi is a professor of engineering has promised to enforce Sharia (Islamic laws) without prejudice against Christians.

– Mohamed Selim El Awa (70 years old) Islamist lawyer, former head of the international Union for Muslim Scholars. He presented himself as a moderate Islamist despite the controversy he has triggered in recent years by opinions about Coptic issues.

– Abdallah El Ashaal: (67 years old) former diplomat, ultra conservative Salafist party. Running as opted out in favor of the Muslem Brotherhood’s candidate Khairat Al Shater.

The leftist candidates:
– Hamdeen Sabbahi: (58 years old) started his political activities when he was a university student when he faced Sadat’s policy and was put imprison. At that time he was the smallest political detainee. Projecting himself as an anti Israel revolutionary, advocate of pan – Arab and supporter of the poor and runs as an independent.

– Abu – Ezz El Hariri: (66 years old) has been an opposition lawmaker for many years. A member of the current parliament, he advocates social justice, fights against corruption and promotes labor rights. He has been nominated by the Popular Socialist Coalition party.

– Hisham El Bastwisi (61 years old) nominated by Tagmmu party. He is known for his outspoken criticism of corruption and election fraud in the years of Moubarak rule.
Mubarak – era:

– Amr Mousa: (75 years old) is a diplomat. Served as foreign minster under Moubarak and became in 2000 Arab League Chief for 10 years. He supports the creation of non – religious state in Egypt and promotes himself as a veteran statesman with extensive links with the outside world.

– Ahmed Shafiq: (70 years old) former army general who was appointed as prime minister in the final days of Mubarak’s rule.

Liberal candidate:

– Khalid Ali: (40 years old) lawyer and human rights activist. He advocates social justice and bigger role for state institutions.

– Houssam Khairallah (67 years old) nominated by the newly created Democratic Pence party.

One of them will be the president of Egypt. The question remains who will be able to save Egypt from the challenges it is facing, the Islamist candidate who wants to enforce Sharea (Islamic laws) and keeps the rest as it is, or the Moubarak – era candidate who will proceed in Mubarak’s policy, or the leftist candidate who has a changing plan which protects the goals of the revolution?

* Ahmad Dirki
Lebanese leftist journalist