CAIRO: People are likely to rally around the newly elected general coordinator of the Egyptian Kefaya Movement for Change Magdy Hussein, even though he remains behind bars, an analyst said Thursday. “Hussein is known for being [an opposition leader] who interacts with the people on the street,” Amr Hashim, senior researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Daily News Egypt. Though currently imprisoned, Hussein won the internal polls of Kefaya last week to become the movement general coordinator, succeeding journalist Abdel-Halim Qandil. Following the internal elections, the movement's coordinating committee delegated assistant general coordinator Ibrahim Badrawy to temporarily replace Hussein, also the former editor-in-chief of the Labor Party mouthpiece El-Sha'b newspaper, till he gets out of prison in February. On Tuesday, Hussein was granted an Administration Court verdict obligating the Minister of Interior to release him on parole for his proper conduct in prison after he spent three quarters of the sentence. “Based on the verdict, Hussein is expected to be set free within 48 hours from now,” Hussein's wife, Naglaa El-Qaliouby told Daily News Egypt. “There is nothing against him that requires him to remain in prison,” she added. Hashim predicts that Hussein will probably engage in more confrontations with the state rather than the previous leaders “due to his revolutionary nature,” ruling out the possibility that he would fail as a movement leader despite his Islamist ideologies. The movement members are not concerned that Hussein's ideologies may have an impact on Kefaya. “Kefaya is a coalition of several political trends from different ideologies and background. And the movement's general coordinator is committed to express the unanimous stance of the coordinating committee,” Kefaya senior member Karima El-Hefnawy told Daily News Egypt. “There is a code of conduct among decided among us as Kefaya members since the movement was formed,” El-Hefnawy added. “If violated, there are bylaws to depend on in judgment.” Hussein, the secretary general of the frozen Islamist Labor Party, is known for being an outspoken critic of the regime. According to Mohamed El-Ashkar, another Kefaya senior member, the choice of Hussein to lead the movement has nothing to do with him being released soon. “Electing Hussein has to do with his patriotic stance … the Labor Party is one of the key forces in Kefaya that has a strong influence,” El-Ashkar told Daily News Egypt. “We are approaching a critical phase … where the Kefaya general coordinator should be a brave fighter,” he added. In 2009, Hussein was handed down a two-year sentence by the Military Court for illegally crossing into the Gaza Strip through a tunnel in North Sinai's Rafah border city. The court's verdicts can't b appealed. In July 2010, Hussein was sentenced to another year in prison for libeling the son of then Minister of Interior Hassan El-Alfi through a serious of articles published back in 1996. However, El-Qaliouby said that public prosecutor halted the verdict until a cassation court looks again into the case. In May 2000, the authorities halted the Labor Party's political activities, saying it was a threat to national interests. The authorities also closed down El-Sha'b newspaper.
