CAIRO - With the People's Assembly now in place following highly interesting elections, Egyptians are now turning the focus of their interest to the presidential race. Politicians and public figures eyeing the country's top post have also started engaging in heated up debates even though the formal date for accepting candidacy applications is still 19 days ahead. The head of the Higher Presidential Elections Commission (HPEC), Farouq Soltan, on Sunday announced April 8 as the deadline for their applications. The HPEC has delayed the announcement of the date of elections to give Egyptians abroad enough time to vote in the historic polls, which may be held at the end of May or in the first week of June. Amr Roshdi, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Monday that the Ministry has referred the complaints of expats about the problems they faced during the parliamentary elections to the HPEC, in order to try and deal with them before the presidential elections, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. Roshdi added they called for the elections to be transparent and to proceed smoothly. They also want enough time to register on the website of the commission, as well as at least two weeks for voting, adding that they didn't have enough time to do so in the parliamentary elections. “We didn't have enough time in the People's Assembly elections,” Abu Zeid Abdel-Fattah, 33, a journalist in Saudi Arabia told the Egyptian Mail on Facebook. “We are preparing to participate in this historic poll. Egyptians should have their say.” The debate appears to be focusing now on the notion of a ‘conciliatory president'. Some presidential hopefuls, who will run in the forthcoming presidential race, have refused the idea of a ‘conciliatory president' as they believe that this idea doesn't reflect full and true democracy. One presidential hopeful, Amr Moussa, wants a president to be elected by the people transparently, democratically and clearly. “Presidential polls should be subjected to the will of the people and under their supervision,” he said at a conference in the Delta governorate of el-Beheira on Sunday night. “There is a plot to divide the Egyptians, so people should work together to prevent this happening,” he said. “We shouldn't deprive people of their right to choose their new leader. Attempts to impose a certain candidate are unacceptable,” he added. As for extending the transitional period or electing an interim president for two years, Moussa said that this wasn't a suitable basis for a stable state. “Stability is something we vitally need, as Egypt is now in a state of chaos,” he added. Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an Islamist hopeful, said yesterday that he was also against the idea, as it is very dangerous for the state and will mean that the revolution has been wasted. “If we have a consensus president to appease the West, it will not benefit Egypt,” Ismail stressed, adding that Egypt is now passing through a very critical stage, explaining that, in the US and Europe, they have competitive elections, not consensus presidents. Mohamed Selim al-Awa, another presidential hopeful, told a local TV talk show programme on Sunday night that Egyptians can decide and choose a president. “It's impossible for everyone to agree on one person. The absence of a set date for presidential elections makes the situation more obscure,” he added. Some activists and politicians reject the idea, arguing that a new president should not be elected before the drawing up of a new constitution and determining the new president's powers and duties. They say that elections will be meaningless if the main political forces agree with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in advance on a certain candidate, making the ballot box a waste of time. Ahmed Darag, a member of the National Association for Change, says that a consensus president, from whom certain parties would benefit, would be a blow to democracy.
