Cairo, October 22: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 82, who has been in power for the past 30 years, is to seek another term by contesting next year’s presidential poll, a high-ranking party official said on Thursday.
“The candidate of the (ruling) Democratic National Party will be President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak. At that moment, the candidate will be Mohammed Hosni Mubarak,” Ali Eddin Hilal said in a radio interview broadcast by the Arabic-language US satellite TV channel Alhurra.
“The candidate of the Democratic National Party in October next year, God willing, will be President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak,” Hilal repeated.
Egypt is hold a parliamentary election on November 28 and December 6, to be followed within a year by a presidential poll.
Mubarak has himself not stated whether he will run in the 2011 presidential vote.
During a visit to Italy in May, he replied to a question by a journalist about his possible successor by grinning, pointing upwards and saying “only Allah knows.”
Some of his ruling party members are known to favour pushing Mubarak’s son, Gamal, 46, who holds a senior position in the NDP, into the presidential fray, especially at times of speculation over the president’s health.
But Gamal Mubarak himself has never indicated whether he would like to take over what some fear could become a family dynasty.
——Agencies