CAIRO- Two of the top contenders for Egypt's presidency are confronting a similar challenge on the campaign trail: their past. Leading Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh and veteran diplomat Amr Moussa are both facing scrutiny over their former affiliations, one to the Muslim Brotherhood and the other to the administration of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. With just two weeks to go before Egypt's first real presidential election, each is taking aim at the other's past in a surge of negative campaigning. Moussa has called Abol Fotouh "a sheikh", an apparent reference to his Brotherhood background. Abol Fotouh, in turn, has described Moussa as part of an old guard that is unfit to lead. The verbal attacks echo a broader debate about Egypt's future and reflect the conflicting concerns of those who are either worried about a consolidation of the influence of Islamist groups suppressed by Mubarak or a comeback by remnants of the old order that would undermine progress to democracy. Moussa and Abol Fotouh have sought to position themselves as true independents as they compete for the centre in a fast-evolving political landscape. For now, they are polling ahead of the rest. Yet the polls also indicate many Egyptians have yet to decide how they will vote in the May 23-24 election. Other leading contenders present voters with a starker choice between the old order and the Islamist movement. One is Mohamed Mursi, the Brotherhood's presidential candidate. The other is Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister. Moussa, who served as Mubarak's foreign minister for a decade until 2001, has been batting away questions about his links to the former administration since he declared his intention to run more than a year ago. The 75-year-old has portrayed himself as a dissident voice in government who fell out of favour with the president. But the questions have not gone away - partly because his opponents keep raising the point. Asked in a newspaper interview published on Sunday about his relationship with Mubarak, he attacked those who sought to "spoil" his name and said his detractors should read a Mubarak memoir for evidence of his opposition to policy while serving as foreign minister. Abol Fotouh's move to the top of the opinion polls has brought with it similarly close scrutiny of his past in the Brotherhood, a group whose inner workings remain a mystery to many Egyptians even as it has moved to the heart of public life. Outlawed under Mubarak, the Brotherhood won more seats than any other group in parliament. But the movement is fighting its own image problem stemming from perceptions that it wants to dominate public life, something it strongly denies. Abol Fotouh, a 60-year-old doctor, parted ways with the Brotherhood last year to mount his own presidential bid. Though he was formally expelled from the movement, he is often asked questions that reflect a degree of public suspicion over whether he may still be loyal to it.
