CAIRO - Dozens of Egyptian intellectuals Wednesday protested outside the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League against the nomination of a key aide to the toppled regime of former president Hosni Mubarak as a chief of the organisation as some Arab countries rejected the Egyptian candidate. The protesters, who were joined by some other supporters from youth groups, called on Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to withdraw the nomination of Moustafa el-Fiqqi, who worked as Mubarak's secretary for five years. "The Government's insistence that el-Fiqi is Egypt's candidate is against the will of the people," Gamal Zahran, a former MP, told The Gazette. Zahran, who was among the demonstrators, added that el-Fiqi was an aide to Mubarak who was used to beautify its 'ugly image'. "It's illogical he represents Egypt and then the Arab League," Zahran added in a telephone interview. The protest, co-organised by a small group of activists called National Front for Justice and Democracy, invited all political powers to join a series of such protests until the Government backs down on the nomination. "If el-Fiqqi represented the post-revolution Egypt, this would mean this country did not change," the group said in a statement. El-Fiqqi was officially nominated to succeed the outgoing chief of the pan-Arab organisation Amr Moussa who declared his intention to run for Egypt's president. However, most political and youth groups, including the April 6thYouth Movement and the National Association for Change, rejected his nomination. "Egypt is full of efficient diplomats, other than el-Fiqqi, who can dfill the post. His nomination is a loss for the seat," said Ahmed Derrag, a member of the National Association for Change, which is head by presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei. He disclosed that their group, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Revolution Coalition informed Premier Sharaf of their rejection of el-Fiqi's nomination. The former diplomat worked as Mubarak's information secretary from 1985 to 1992. He also chaired the Arab Affairs Committee in the dissolved Upper House. His critics claim that el-Fiqqi won a seat in 2005 in the parliament through rigging. Meanwhile, Some Arab diplomatic said in press remarks that el-Fiqi could encounter opposition from some member states of the Arab League. So far El-Fiqqi is running against prominent Qatari diplomat Abdelrrahman Al-Attiyah, the former secretary-general of the Gulf Co-operation Council. Sudan officially rejected the Egyptian nominee over his position toward Sudan, which he expressed in some recent articles, the Sudanese news agency (SUNA) quoted a diplomat as saying. Sources in the Sudanese government had also said Sudan does not oppose an Egyptian nominee, but has reservations regarding el-Fiqqi in particular. Some other diplomats in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates said their countries had various reservations on the nomination of el-Fiqqi as the issue was raised earlier this week in a meeting of the Gulf Co-operation Council. However, no official stance was declared. Egyptians have held the post since the creation of the Arab League in 1945, but the organisation's charter does not stipulate that its secretary general must be Egyptian.
