Omar Suleiman's presidential bid triggers cooperation between 'pro-revolution' candidates, who agree on joint campaigns to combat former regime figures Several presidential hopefuls assembled in the Wasat party headquarters on Monday, declaring they would be in continuous cooperation to combat remnants of the old regime and bring about the goals of the revolution, and with the goal of uniting the pro-revolutionary movements around a single candidate, to avoid splitting the vote. The meeting came after former head of intelligence and Mubarak's vice president Omar Suleiman, registered on Sunday to run for the presidential seat, a move which many found threatening to the revolution and its aims. Presidential hopefuls attending the meeting included former foreign minister and head of the Arab League Amr Moussa, prominent Islamic thinker Mohamed Selim El-Awa, liberal figure Ayman Nour and Judge Hisham El-Bastawisi. Leftist candidate Abu El-Ezz El-Hariri and former Brotherhood figure Abdul Moneim Abul-Fotouh sent representatives instead. Meanwhile, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi as well as leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi failed to show up, despite having been invited. According to head of the Wasat party, Abul-Ela Maadi, who presented the meeting's findings, Mursi informed them he would be sending a representative but did not. Other figures attending the meeting included political figure Hamdy Qandeel. The attendees agreed on several points, all targeting fair elections free from former regime players. They will be campaigning in favour of a draft law presented by Wasat party MP Essam Sultan, expected to be discussed in parliament on Tuesday, which would ban remnants of the former regime from state positions, including the presidency, for five years. Maadi explained that anyone who has worked in the Mubarak government in a high position over the past five years would be considered one of the remnants of the ousted regime, and the candidates would be campaigning against his right to run for the elections. This definition would hence be applied to two main candidates – Omar Suleiman and former prime minister under Mubarak, Ahmed Shafiq. The legality of all presidential candidate recommendations, said Maadi, will also be revised, as they have been documented by employees of the police and the army. Any presidential candidate requiresrecommendations of 30,000 voters from at least 15 Egyptian governorates (or provinces) with no less than 1000 recommendations per governorate,the support of 30 elected MPs,or nomination by a party holding at least one seat in the legislature. The 30,000 recommendations must be officially documented by special public notary offices affiliated to the Ministry of Justice. The plan for the coming period would be to get all “pro-revolution” candidates working together on a joint national project that would bring about the goals of the revolution. A committee formed of three members, including Hatem Azzam, Maadi and Qandeel is to coordinate between the different candidates. However, despite expectations the candidates failed to agree on one pro-revolutionary candidate to rally against Suleiman. Bastawisi stated it would be too soon to make such a move, considering that the list of eligible candidates will not be declared before 26 April. However, he said that the proposal to agree on one sole candidate met considerable approval from amongst the assembled group.
