Amira Howeidy attended the first debate between four potential presidential candidates only to find they agreed on everything except the economy You might expect that a country that has just ousted its president of 30 years would be excited about his replacement. After all, if the Higher Council of Armed Forces commits to the schedule it has announced, presidential elections will be held either in December or early next year. And for the first time in its modern history Egypt does not know who the next president is going to be. Yet still it does not seem to be feeling the heat. What was billed as a debate between four potential presidential candidates held last Saturday failed miserably to make headlines the next day. Not that there was much debate. The set up was as follows: each candidate had two minutes to answer questions, sent to them beforehand by the moderator. According to Mustafa El-Labbad, director of Al-Sharq Centre for Strategic Studies which hosted the event, some of the candidates rejected the idea of having their adversaries on the same panel. To make it even safer for the contenders, there were no questions from the audience. The outcome was a four hour-long, conventional interview with the candidates who did show up: Ayman Nour, 47, head of the liberal Ghad Party; Hamdeen Sabahi, 57, founder of the Nasserist Al-Karama (Dignity) Party; Magdi Hatata, 70, former military chief of staff and Hisham El-Bastawisi, 60, ex-deputy head of the Court of Cassation. Ex Arab League chief Amr Moussa and ex director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed El-Baradei, both turned down the invitation to take part, while the only Islamist candidate to be invited, Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdel-Moneim Abul- Fotouh, initially agreed to participate but then travelled at the last minute. The Nasserist, the judge, the military man and the liberal appeared to agree about everything save the economy. All four supported calls to draft a new constitution before elections are held, contrary to the schedule approved in a referendum held last March which stipulated that the next parliament elect an assembly to draft a new constitution. They all agreed on the need to cancel the 50 per cent of parliamentary seats set aside for farmers and workers, objected to the formation of political parties based on religion, supported amending the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement to allow for the redeployment of more forces in Sinai and approved the strict regulation of funding for electoral campaigns and political parties. Ayman Nour, the runner up in the 2005 presidential elections (with seven per cent of the vote according to official figures) who was widely believed to enjoy unofficial US support at the time, appeared more radical in his position towards Israel. There's no room for "normalisation or settlement" he said, before the "return" of occupied Arab land, whether in Palestine or Iraq. Arab nationalist Hamdeen Sabahi stuck to his earlier public statements. If he becomes president, he told the debate's audience of reporters, political activists and analysts, he will stop exporting gas to Israel and direct it to rural Egypt instead. Sabahi, who once addressed thousands of demonstrators in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest at the US-UK led war on Iraq in 2003, telling them to occupy the US embassy in Cairo in retaliation, said he would support "legitimate resistance" against the occupation in Palestine and Iraq. Sabahi was the only voice to support a bi-national state as a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Similarly, the candidates all expressed admiration for the Turkish political and economic model, though in varying degrees. El-Bastawisi was abrupt: post- revolutionary Egypt should not copy the Turkish model, he said. Instead, "we should study it and make use of anything in it that suits us". Hatata, the only military candidate to participate in the debate, praised Ankara's refusal, despite being a NATO member, to allow US forces to use its bases during the 2003 war on Iraq. A secular country with a government dominated by a moderate Islamist party since 2003, Turkey has a powerful military with a history of intervening in politics. "I refuse to take inspiration from the Turkish military... as a guardian to the constitution" said Hatata, adding that the Islamists had managed to "lead the country and protect its sovereignty and independence." Hatata, who is a former commander of the second Egyptian army, made no secret of his admiration for the "economically and politically powerful" Iran. While describing Tehran as a supporter of the Palestinian people, he was careful to direct comforting noises towards the Gulf states. "We are seeking relations based on equal benefit with Iran... and we have commitments towards the Gulf." He then added that the three disputed islands between Iran and the United Arab Emirates were occupied "before" the Islamic Iranian Revolution. Nour gave a more cautious answer to the question of restoring relations with Tehran. He described Egyptian-Iranian relations as "strategically important", was "all for restoring relations" but with "limitations". El-Bastawisi was more reserved: "Iran has to choose: either it acts as a bridge between East Asia and the Arab region or a barrier." Sabahi described the Mubarak era policy with Tehran as a "political mistake" which Egypt "must" correct. The candidates' views on development and the economy -- their only point of contention -- were predictable. A self-proclaimed liberal, Nour said he adopts the "third way" for economic development where "the state plays a role" and investment incentives are in place. The left-leaning Sabahi said Egypt should take inspiration from countries like Brazil, Turkey, Malaysia, India and China. "We should devise a policy that merges elements of these models to suit Egypt's needs," he said. Hatata said he was strongly in favour of an open door policy with the public and private sectors as "the main pillars" while El-Bastawisi came out in favour of a progressive system of taxation. A firm date for the presidential elections has yet to be set by the military council. Elections could be held end of this year but in the absence of an official timeline anything is possible. Potential presidential candidates will remain just that until registration procedures for nominees are open. But some of the contenders who took part in Saturday's debate might end up in the race and what they said on domestic politics and Egypt's foreseeable regional role will be taken seriously, argues the debate's moderator Mustafa El-Labbad. "They will be held accountable by the Egyptians for what they said."
