The former presidential candidate and moderate Islamist Abdel Monem Abol Fotouh believes that dragging the army into politics is worse than the Muslim Brotherhood remaining in power, writes Khaled Dawoud... Abol Fotouh, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader himself, has announced his party, Strong Egypt, would not nominate a candidate in the presidential elections, expected to be held in April, saying the entire process was flawed. He said there were little guarantees for a fair and free competition as all bodies of the deeply-rooted state seemed to be backing a single candidate to occupy the post, Defence Minister Field Marshal Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi. Abol Fotouh, who once said that the ouster of Mohammad Morsi by the army gave the Brotherhood a ‘kiss of life', described the June 30 uprising as a "revolutionary wave" that turned into a "coup" on July 3, saying that Morsi's refusal to accept early presidential elections did not justify his overthrow through military power. All eyes remain focused on Sisi, who is expected to officially announce his decision to run for the presidency very soon. But to the contrary of Abol Fotouh's stance, Nasserist leader and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi will vie in the race against Sisi at the request, as he said, of mounting pressure from younger members of his movement, The Popular Trend or Al-Tayar Al-Shaabi. To the surprise of many, Sabahi, 59, came in third in the first round of presidential elections held in May 2012. He won 4.6 million votes, followed by Abol Fotouh who gathered nearly 4 million votes. Sabahi, a former parliament member, built his reputation as a staunch opponent of Mubarak, and had been jailed several times under his rule. According to Hussein Abdel-Ghani, a senior leader of the socialist movement Tayar Shaabi leader, many of Sabahi's associates and supporters had pressured him not to run against Sisi, saying that this would ruin his political future in light of the little support they expected him to get. Among those who clearly tried to discourage Sabahi from running was Abdel-Hakim Abdel-Nasser, son of late leader, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, whom he considers to be his mentor and model. Khaled Youssef, a film director, who was always seen with Sabahi since he decided to run for president in 2012, also criticized his decision. Both Abdel-Nasser and Youssef said they supported Sisi as the country's next president. "Hamdeen himself had repeatedly said that he would not agree to be a reason to divide the wide national coalition that united behind the goal of ending the fascist rule of the Muslim Brotherhood on 30 June," said Abdel-Ghani. "He still believes that together with terrorism, they represent the main challenge that we have to unite against," he added. The goal of appearing united behind the Army and Sisi against the Brotherhood and terrorism was also clearly among the main reasons that divided the youth movement of Tamarud that came into existence shortly before the removal of Morsi, and introduced the simply-written petition demanding his ouster because of his failure to run the country properly during his single year in power. That petition was signed by over 20 million people, and was considered the spark that led the 30 June demonstrations, ending with the army's intervention on July 3 to announce to the removal of Morsi in response to popular demands. Tamarud's leader, Mahmoud Badr, sided with Sisi and became a near spokesman for his campaign, while other key leaders in the movement decided to back Sabahi as the civilian candidate aiming at achieving the goals of the 25 January Revolution. "Many of the youth in the Popular Trend do not necessarily see Sisi as the true representative of the 25 January Revolution they took part in three years ago," said Abdel-Ghani. "They are seriously worried that Sisi's nomination would open the door for the return of the old Mubarak state, especially that they can see that many of the well-known figures who belong to that era were standing firm behind him." It remains a mystery why Sisi had been delaying his expected decision to resign from his military post, as the law demands, ahead of announcing that he would be the key candidate in the presidential race. Sisi is indeed popular and is seen by many Egyptians as the "one and only candidate" capable of dealing with Egypt's economic, social and security challenges. Sabahi; therefore, and any other candidate needs to think twice. Buy having no rivals at all will turn the elections actually to a public referendum on Sisi. In other words, another one man show. Facing the threat of terrorism by extremist groups in Sinai that claimed responsibility for series of daring attacks against the army and police, and the daily demonstrations of Brotherhood supporters, supporters of the army general who was promoted recently to the highest rank of "field Marshal" went as far as demanding that Sisi be declared president without elections in the first place.
