Until the end of next July, the debate will remain ongoing in Egypt over the intentions of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) regarding the coming presidential elections. That is until the matter is permanently determined with the start of formal candidacy applications for these elections at the beginning of August of next year. According to the constitution, a candidate to the presidential elections must be a member for at least a year of the higher council of an existing political party before the start of formal candidacy applications for the elections. Thus, of all those whose names are being mentioned in the media and over whom predictions are being made in the minds of the elites and of analysts, none will be able to run as candidate unless they have become members of a political party's higher council a year before being allowed to formally apply for candidacy. And although NDP circles deem it most likely for President Hosni Mubarak to apply for candidacy to the coming elections, and for his electoral program to include promises of speeding up political reform plans and constitutional amendments that would guarantee limiting the presidency to only two terms and reducing restrictions on candidacy for the presidential elections, governmental political circles have returned to discussing the issue of the “Vice President”, especially when some have considered that transferring the President's powers to the Prime Minister, as took place recently when President Mubarak underwent gallbladder surgery in Germany, has increased people's conviction that the presence of a Vice President has become a necessity. Indeed, this post has remained vacant throughout Mubarak's rule since 1981, and opposition parties or forces have not insisted upon it or exerted pressures demanding it, on the basis that the Vice President usually becomes the “next President”, as took place after the deaths of Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat. Indeed Mubarak has always justified not appointing a Vice President by saying that he would prefer for the people to choose their president themselves, his words thus coinciding with the stance taken by opposition forces. Yet the public in the street has continued to consider that appointing a Vice President would protect the country from the danger of sudden changes and would reassure the Egyptian people over the process of transfer of power, as well as provide them with a clearer image of the future. Certainly the months remaining until the end of next July will witness political activity at different levels in Egypt, whether within the ruling party or amongst opposition forces, in addition of course to the activity of non-partisan opposition forces, among them that of Doctor Mohamed El-Baradei and those gathered around him who seek to amend the constitution before the presidential elections. So far no opposition party has put forth the name of a candidate to wage the presidential race, and political parties are presently focusing their efforts on the People's Council elections, scheduled before the end of this year, while the ruling party remains silent regarding its plans for the presidential elections, justifying its stance by saying that the constitution has specified steps for the transfer of power and that it is still too early to talk about presidential competition. The street remains in a different world, and I had written last week wondering about the fate of the struggle between Egyptian political forces to win over the street, after the clashes that took place between members of the April 6 Youth Movement and the police, which happened again later in front of the Supreme Court square in downtown Cairo, after dozen of young people demonstrated demanding the release of their fellow members of the movement who had been arrested. Thus, the Egyptian political scene indicates a tremendous gap between politicians and the public, who follows events, observes the struggles and battles of political forces and wishes that there was a Vice President.
