CAIRO: Egypt on Sunday withdrew its candidate Mustafa El-Fiqi just moments before voting was due to start and nominated its Foreign Minister Nabil El-Araby to head the Arab League. A series of protests were organized around downtown Cairo recently in objection to the Egyptian cabinet's nomination of Mustafa El-Fiqi to succeed Amr Moussa as the head of the Arab League when Moussa steps down May 15. Qatar withdrew its candidate for Arab League secretary general, Abdul Rahman Al-Attiya, after Egypt nominated its foreign minister. The objections against El-Fiqi centered around his connections with the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak and his membership in the regime's political party; the National Democratic Party (NDP). He was the NDP candidate in Damanhour in 2005, a campaign he won amidst allegations of bribery, corruption and vote rigging. While MP, he also chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee in the People's Assembly. Those who objected feel that Egypt's candidate in the post-revolutionary era should not be someone with close ties to the regime the revolution overthrew. El-Fiqi has defended himself in the press, saying he was not part of the regime and had not been from decades. He also stated that he was forced to join the NDP. When contacted by Daily News Egypt, El-Fiqi refused to make any comments regarding his candidacy. Residents of Damanhour The opposition to El-Fiqi's candidacy was not limited to Cairo-based activists, but residents of Damanhour where he served as MP travelled to Cairo to also register their objections. Adel Fathi El-Attar, a doctor who is the coordinator of the Kefaya Movement for Change in Beheira, where Damanhour is located, told DNE, “This man is a liar. We saw his tactics firsthand. In 2005 when he was running for parliament we saw the corruption and bribery. Don't believe him when he says he was forced to join the NDP. Those types are far removed from the people.” El-Attar alleged that steel bars from Ahmed Ezz's company Ezz steel were placed in front of mosques in the area, with the promise that if El-Fiqi were to win, then the amount of steel would be increased in the tons for construction projects. “There is also a specific incident between me and him,” El-Attar said, “He came to the hospital where I worked one morning during his campaign to meet with the heads of the medical departments. I told him to leave because it is against the law to campaign in government institutions and that we could meet him later in the day at the syndicate. He replied ‘Who are you to talk to me like that?'” Osama El-Henawy, a member of Kefaya from Damanhour, told DNE, “He removed the national agenda from his mind in 2005 and he was never trustworthy; he'll wear any hat he needs to wear. We know him because we lived under him. He never had the interests of the country at heart.” Campaigning The head of the Arab League is chosen by ballot with the winner needing a two-thirds majority. The vote was already put off once. Results were to be announced on May 15, following the Arab foreign ministers meeting. There were speculations that the decision might be postponed to the Arab summit in March 2012, until Egypt and Qatar decide with each other on which one of them would field a candidate. Some countries had said that they don't want to be put in a position where they would have to choose between two countries, fearing the repercussions on future relations. But upon El-Araby's nomination, Qatar immediately withdrew its candidate. As the outgoing Secretary General Amr Moussa has declared his intent to run for president in Egypt — elections scheduled to be held this year — it was expected that his top aide would take over, as a caretaker, until a new Secretary General is elected. El-Fiqi had been campaigning in the region, but recently cancelled a planned trip to Sudan because he felt that the government in Khartoum had already decided to back Qatar's candidate. This was apparently due to comments he made last year in which he criticized Khartoum and blamed them for the secession of the South. According to an article published by state-run Ahram Online, El-Fiqi was also used as leverage by Saudi Arabia to prevent the prosecution of Mubarak. According to the article, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal promised during a secret visit to Cairo to back El-Fiqi's candidacy in exchange for dropping the prosecution of Mubarak, an offer that was turned down. During a visit to Lebanon earlier this month, El-Fiqi stated that not having an Egyptian head for the Arab League would send out a wrong message after the revolution. “At this point, Egypt feels that pulling this post from it, especially after the January 25 Revolution, would remove the formal Arab recognition of [the Jan. 25 revolution],” the Daily Star reported him as saying. Revolutionary objections Yet while El-Fiqi used the revolution as a calling card in the region, it is exactly because of the revolution that there was so much objection to his candidacy at home. He is not perceived as someone who supported the revolution; in fact the perception of him is a staunch pro-Mubarak man. El-Fiqi met with many youth movements who participated in the January 25 Revolution in an effort to win them over. Activist Hossam El Hamalawy wrote on his blog arabawy.org when El-Fiqi's name was put forward that “El-Fiqi was also kicked out by the revolutionaries in Tahrir when he tried to visit the square on Feb. 10, one day before [Mubarak] stepped down. Hence, it came as a shock for me and many others that this NDP man who praises Israel's normalizers and who was a cornerstone in Mubarak's foreign policy, would be Revolutionary Egypt's candidate for the secretary general of Arab League post.” Hamalawy added, “El-Fiqi won his 2005 parliamentary seat in Damanhour in a completely rigged vote (I covered the elections in his constituency on that year and I'm witness to the irregularities that happened) and was the one of the regime's biggest propagandists in dealing with media outlets.” This view is not limited to activists. Ahmed El Ahmadein, a former member of the Writers' Union who protested the candidacy of Fiqi, said, “He is not worthy of the position, it's enough he was a member of the NDP and the corruption that permeated it. Egypt doesn't have to have a monopoly of the Arab League, but in any case it's an objection to the nominated person himself, not the candidate of Egypt.”
