The visibility of the Egyptian president's son, seen by many here as his father's chosen political heir, has grown to Olympian dimensions: His photograph is on a four-story-tall billboard on Cairo's busiest square. The billboard celebrating Egypt's Olympic achievements was erected in Tahrir Square days after the Egyptian team returned from Athens with five medals, the most for the country in 56 years. President Hosni Mubarak and Gamal Mubarak have repeatedly denied they plan a father-son succession. But Gamal Mubarak has indicated he would not turn down a nomination, presumably to run in one of the one-candidate affairs that have returned his father to power every six years for more than two decades. The next presidential vote is expected in 2005.
Gamal Mubarak is a 41-year-old former investment banker touted in the Egyptian media as savvy about the economy and in touch with the common man. Billboards featuring Hosni Mubarak are part of Cairo's landscape. Newspapers, which are carefully guided by the government, carry his photographs on their front pages almost daily, along with headlines praising his wisdom and leadership. The new billboard is the first to give the son such prominence. He is pictured in a business suit on one panel greeting wrestling gold medalist Karam Ibrahim. Another panel shows Ibrahim in action on the mat, a third shows boxing silver medalist Mohamed Aly in the ring and the fourth shows all five medal winners. Amid questions about the 76-year-old president's health, democracy activist Ahmed Seif el-Islam said he expected the National Democratic Party at its national conference later this month to "take a decision to renew (the mandate of) Hosni Mubarak or choose his son as the next president." Seif el-Islam described the Olympic billboard as another attempt to highlight Gamal Mubarak's common touch, along with newspaper photographs showing him at sporting events. El-Islam was among a coalition of opposition figures who issued a statement Thursday denouncing the possible "inheritance of the presidency."
| I always try to show my "common touch" by having my picture put up on a 4-story billboard. It makes me look folksy. |
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