Campaigners have set up a Twitter hashtag and a Facebook page calling on Gamal, the son of former President Hosni Mubarak, to run for president in April 2024.
Egyptian social media users have launched an online campaign to support the son of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to stand in the presidential elections expected to take place in April next year.
The hashtag “Gamal Mubarak” has been trending on Egyptian Twitter for several days, with social media users sharing old videos of Mubarak, the son, in support of his presidential bid.
Campaigners also launched a Facebook page under the same name in support of Mubarak’s election.
In a Twitter post, the user of the social network said that the only solution to the political and economic problems in Egypt is Gamal Mubarak as president.
I said years ago and I still say: The solution to the political and economic problems in Egypt is the election of Mr. Gamal Mubarak in the election of the president of the country of Egypt. it can achieve social change, national reconciliation and economic growth. Gamal Mubarak is the answer ✌️🇪🇬#Jamal _ Mubarak #Egypt pic.twitter.com/lNOM0n27eE
– Sameh Abou Arayes Sameh Abu Arayes (@SamehArayes) July 8, 2023
TRANSLATION: “I said it years ago and I will say it again.” The solution to Egypt’s political and economic problems is for Gamal Mubarak to participate in the elections and become president. With his experience, capabilities and relationships, he will be able to transform Egypt towards democracy, national reconciliation and economic growth. Gamal Mubarak is the answer. “
One social media user wrote on Twitter that either Mubarak or Ahmed Tantawi, a former MP and leader of the Karama party, who announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election in February, would be better than President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
I have candidates #Jamal _ Mubarak and #Ahmed _ Tantawi For the leadership of the Republic, because in all cases he will be kinder than the people who are holding this country. pic.twitter.com/Vl7oKITN39
– gaberelathrat (@GaberElathrat) July 8, 2023
TRANSLATION: “I agree with Gamal Mubarak or Ahmed Tantawi for the presidency, because each of them will be better than the one leading this country.”
According to Egypt’s 2019 constitution, el-Sisi can run for a six-year term in 2024.
Despite rumors that Mubarak is running, he has not said anything. But in a 2006 interview with Egyptian leader Lamis el-Hadidy, Mubarak said he had no intention or desire to run for president.
Responding to a tweet by controversial Egyptian businessman Ashraf al-Saad, Alaa Mubarak challenged al-Saad in a now-deleted letter to predict the incoming president. Some saw the response as a sign that Mubarak might run for the presidency.
Earlier this month, al-Saad tweeted a 2013 television broadcast in which he predicted that el-Sisi would be the next president.
Divided into society
Although some Egyptians have shown strong support for the younger Mubarak to become president, others have been critical of the possibility, complaining that he was released from prison in 2015.
Gamali and his brother Alaa were release less than four years after they were first arrested along with their father in April 2011 – months after Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February 2011 in the face of popular protests.
Security officials said at the time of their release that the two – businessman Alaa and Mubarak’s successor Gamal – along with their father, were also charged with corruption. Separately, the two sons were prosecuted for insider trading.
Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years, was released from prison in 2017 and he died he is 91 years old in 2020. Many believe he is preparing Gamal to succeed him.
Mubarak’s controversial legacy
Throughout his rule, Mubarak was a staunch ally of the United States, a bulwark of the military, and a peacekeeper for Egypt and Israel.
But to the hundreds of thousands of young Egyptians who staged unprecedented 18-day protests in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, Mubarak was a left-wing, latter-day pharaoh.
Mubarak was sentenced to prison in 2012 for trying to kill 239 protesters during an 18-day coup.
The appeals court ordered a retrial and the case against Mubarak and his officials was dismissed. He was finally released in 2017.
After his arrest in April 2011, Mubarak spent almost 6 years in prison in hospitals. After his release, he took him to a house in the Heliopolis district of Cairo.
Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak’s regime see it as “an era of autocracy and crony capitalism”. His overthrow led to free elections in Egypt, which brought in President Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi took office a year after mass protests in 2013 led to his ouster by then-security chief General el-Sisi, who is now president.
Over the past decade, Mubarak-era figures have been gradually impeached, and restrictions on political freedoms have fueled fears among activists that the old regime has returned.