A senior official at the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has ruled out the possibility that the Egyptian military might stonewall the nomination of a civilian president. "The military establishment is very respectable, and I can never imagine it might do something against the Constitution,” said Hossam Badrawi, the party's Chairman of the Education Secretariat. Egypt will hold presidential elections late 2011. US classified documents recently released by Wikileaks, an online whistle-blower, quoted former US ambassador to Cairo, Richard Downey, as saying in a 2007 cable that the Egyptian military will be a major obstacle to Gamal Mubarak's nomination. Gamal is widely predicted to succeed his father in 2011. Downey had noted in a cable that all of Egypt's presidents since the 1952 coup d'état had hailed from the military. Badrawi said in an interview with al-Hurra satellite channel that everything will be conducted according to the Constitution. “The Constitution sets specific procedures, and each party has its own way of selecting its nominee. Nothing violating the constitution is involved," he told the interviewer.
