CAIRO - Campaigners calling for the nomination of Gamal Mubarak, the younger son of President Hosni Mubarak, in the next presidential elections may have left millions of Egyptians in a state of confusion as to the political future of their country, while silence reigns over both the presidency and the ruling National Democratic Party. Gamal Mubarak, an influential politician in the ruling party, did not react in any meaningful manner to the new campaigns in his support. But the meanings of his silence, the silence of the President himself, and that of the National Democratic Party do not seem to be absent from the minds of many observers in Egypt, who say they watch the rumoured political succession slowly but surely coming into effect. “I've no doubt about the authenticity of this political succession scenario at all,” said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science-cum-writer. “President Hosni Mubarak won't run in the next presidential elections because his son will be a contender,” he told the Egyptian Mail in an interview. President Mubarak, in power since 1981, has yet to say if he would seek a sixth term in office. In an address to Parliament last year, however, he said he would continue to serve Egypt as long as “my heart pulsates”. Leaders in his National Democratic Party say they cannot name a candidate for the presidency because the “President is well”. Questions about Egypt's political future have always made the leaders of the party angry, while others tended to scoff at reporters who asked them. During the 2009 annual congress of the party, the younger Mubarak himself put the correspondent of a major satellite channel on the spot when he told him both in Arabic and in English that “I don't plan to run for president”. But Mubarak junior's silence, while a group of activists are collecting signatures to ask him to run for president belie his initial promises during the congress of the party, say observers. The younger Mubarak, an eloquent and articulate speaker who revolutionised work inside the ruling party, according to several party officials, by forming critical policies committees that had never existed before, will most likely be Egypt's next president, observers add. These observers believe that by keeping silent in the face of the support campaigns in his favour, Gamal Mubarak shows indifference to the confusion felt by the majority in this country. “Otherwise why should he stay silent?” asked Saad Hagrass, a political analyst. “This silence also reflects the state of total confusion that continues to control everything in Egypt,” he added. But Mubarak the junior might have got fed up with denying the presence of plans on his part to become president. He was asked the same question about the presidency every time he faced the press. One time he told a TV correspondent that he had wished he would ask him questions that do not pertain to the presidency. “Will you ask me the same question again?” he jokingly addressed Hussein Abdel Ghani of the freewheeling Qatari TV Al-Jazeera last year. Even with this, his observers say political succession was planned a long time in Egypt and it was being implemented bit by bit since Gamal Mubarak started to rise inside the ruling party in 2005. “This succession plan is being implemented quickly these days giving fears about the president's health,” Nafaa said. President Mubarak underwent a gallbladder surgery in Germany last March, but a month later he came back to Egypt to resume his activities. He has not designated a successor and never named a vice president.
