Close up: Countdown to now By Salama A Salama What one could have only guessed at is now a fact. The candidate for the next presidential elections is the incumbent president, notwithstanding all pretensions to the contrary. We've been kept guessing as if other options were real. We've been kept waiting for something new to unravel, as if we were one of those countries in genuine transition, a country where presidents and parties come and go. For a while, it seemed that Egypt was searching for the right national figure to take over from a regime that has been in power for 30 years. Some of those closely connected with the regime went looking for that figure inside the presidential family, especially after the health crisis of the current president. This happened amid an unprecedented media and political campaign on behalf of Gamal Mubarak. During that time, Gamal Mubarak often strayed beyond his scripted role as secretary of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Policies Committee in a manner that suggested that he was the one, a possibility that is hard to dismiss in a country so steeped in patriarchal authority. The air of secrecy in Egyptian political circles gave credence to this possibility, especially with Gamal Mubarak going on official and semi-official missions inside and outside Egypt. When government officials were asked to explain Gamal's rising role, they merely said that he was being a caring son. Meanwhile, the NDP used the secrecy to put its house in order. And it used the uncertainty to make sure that the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections would proceed without a hitch. With the world following closely Egypt's pre- elections scene, the NDP was taking no chances. Finally, it seems, NDP leaders concluded that they had a firm grip on the elections. Their candidates were lined up, through the workings of the so-called caucuses, and they knew exactly who to field and where. Anyone who wants to run for office has to go through the NDP, and all parliamentary candidates have been tested and tried. The NDP hold on the elections is such that some of the opposition parties have been asked to refrain from fielding contestants in certain constituencies so that the NDP may know exactly who would win and where. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood has been defanged, its candidates either imprisoned or banished from the scene. The countdown to the elections has begun with the only thing left for imagination being the number of seats the three opposition parties will be allowed. Most likely, the opposition parties, taken all together, will be permitted one-fifth or less of all parliamentary seats, depending on how the quota for women will play out. When NDP Media Secretary Alieddin Hilal disclosed that President Hosni Mubarak was running for another term, this was the first time the decision was formally announced. And that's how the NDP goes about putting its house in order. Now all bets are off, including that of Gamal Mubarak's candidacy, which must have been just a diversionary tactic. The NDP kept us guessing so as to confuse the opposition, befuddle those who oppose the bequest of power, and frustrate those who demand political reform. Still, everything that happened so far is not without meaning. If anything, it is indication of how things will go in case of sudden change or an unexpected turn of events. After all, no one in Egypt is going to forsake power while it hovers so easy within reach, like a ripe fruit dangling from a tree.
