CAIRO - With the presidential elections soon to kick off, Egyptians find themselves in a state of indecision, something that they have never experienced before, with everyone asking each other whom they are going to vote for. All the talk now is about the identity of the coming president and which candidate people should or shouldn't vote for. Some want a president with a certain ideology, while others base their choice on their experiences with the old regime. "Our president should be a man with a good understanding of religion, who will apply God's Sharia," says 22-year-old Saleh Moustafa, who supported the Islamists in the recent parliamentary elections. "Islamists should play their part now, as they are the only hope for building a new state based on justice and respect for God's word," adds Saleh, who is going to vote for one of the Islamist candidates in the coming presidential elections. But his choice won't be easy, as he'll have a lot of Islamist candidates to choose from. Many Egyptians think that a good religious background is a must for a president, who will be ruling a very religious people. The big success of the Islamist parties in the recent parliamentary elections shows how popular they have become. A group of clerics recently declared ‘the Islamic criteria' that the new ruler should meet. He must be sound of body and mind, as well as having a fair understanding of the Sharia and a good insight into people's circumstances, problems and needs. "He should be of a suitable age, with proper economic and political skills," says Mohamed Mokhtar el-Mahdi, the head of the Gamea Sharia, a charitable Islamic organisation. “Honesty, wisdom and modesty are also necessary, while the new president should monitor the performance of his officials and fight corruption, as well as trying to help the people and, most importantly, talking to them frankly.” Emad Abdel-Ghaffour, the head of the Salafist Al-Nur Party, which has won about 24 per cent of parliamentary seats, thinks that having an Islamist background shouldn't be the only criterion for choosing the next president, who, he says, should be acceptable to everyone. Many ordinary Egyptians want the next president to be a true man ��" strong, wise, strict, decisive and unhesitating. "He should be a strong personality, capable of tackling problems and standing up for the rights of his people," says Nasr Eddin Mahmoud, a construction worker. “A weak or old president is the last thing I want to see.” Just after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak in Februray 2011, a song entitled Matlub Dakar (A True Man is Wanted) came out, sung by a group of young singers. They said that we need a real man for the job, but they used the slang word dakar for a man, so the official media banned the song. Indeed, the qualities the song talks about for the president could be found in a woman too. In the meantime, all this talk about qualities reminds people of the faults of previous presidents. "The new president should realise that it's his job ��" not his family's ��" to rule Egypt. We don't want a new first lady, who gets involved in the affairs of the country. We want his sons and daughters to be ordinary citizens, not getting preferential treatment because of their father's position," says Magda Abdullah, a teacher at a Cairo school. Many analysts blamed Mubarak's family and his dream for his son to inherit power for angering the Egyptians, who then revolted against Hosni Mubarak last year. There have been many jokes on the web about the new president. "He shouldn't be from el-Menoufiya Governorate; he should have good ears to hear the people; and he should also have access to satellite channels to know what's happening around him. "He shouldn't begin his speeches with ‘My dear brothers and sisters', as we're not from the same family," said one of the many posts on Facebook. Another post was more direct, saying that the presidency mustn't be hereditary and that the president, from now on, must be a state official, rewarded for doing well and punished for doing badly.
