Disputes over leadership started to pop up inside the opposition el-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, a few days after the party's founder and political dissident Ayman Nour received verbal support from some members of the party for his bid to run in the 2011 presidential elections. The party's incumbent chairman Ehab el-Kholi said he expressed opposition to fielding Nour as the party's candidate in the elections and that the board of the party was due to vote on his opinion soon. “Nour has legal and constitutional hindrances on the way of running to president,” el-Kholi said. “If he manages to remove these hindrances and win support from party members, then he can run,” he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. Nour was sent to five years in jail in late 2005 for fabricating powers of attorney related to his party, which he founded the same year. Some legal experts said his indictment could nullify his bid to run in any elections in the future. Despite this, he gathered his supporters at the premises of his party in central Cairo on Valentine's Day and got verbal backing from them for his presidential bid. Nour said in a previous interview with The Gazette that he had legal ways to enable him to run in the elections. “If my party chooses to field me as a candidate in the election, I would seek ways to find a solution to this problem,” Nour said. “My party would ratchet up the necessary internal and external pressure to make this possible,” he added without elaboration. Observers say el-Kholi's objection to Nour's candidacy portends fresh disputes inside the party that has been dogged by wrangling since its creation. El-Ghad was split into two parties in 2006 after a group of its members broke ranks with Nour and claimed party leadership for themselves. The ensuing violence, which culminated in the destruction of the premises of the party in central Cairo, showed how political differences can lead. El-Kholi said he would take sides with the candidate who would get approval from Egypt's political powers. “If Nour is this candidate, I'll back him,” he said. “But I need everybody to know that there're other people in the party who can run in the election too,” he added.
