Azerbaijan, Baku, October 24 / Trend , U.Sadikhova /
The former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa has chances to collect a large number of votes in the upcoming presidential elections, considering his influence on the Arab political arena. According to some experts, it will be on hand to the ruling regime in Egypt.
"Amr Moussa is undoubtedly a popular figure in Egypt and could garner a significant number of votes in the presidential elections. However, he is also an ally of Mubarak's regime and is unlikely to challenge its wishes," Nicola Pratt, Associate Professor of the International Politics of the Middle East at the University of Warwick, told Trend .
Secretary General of the League of Arab States and former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa did not exclude the possibility of his candidature for the presidency of Egypt in the elections in 2011, Al Arabiya website reported.
73-year-old Egyptian politician is known for his tough position towards the United States and Israel in the issue of the Middle East conflict, and is very popular in Egyptian and Arab political circles, Al Arabiya wrote.
If Moussa nominates, his rival in the elections will be Gamal Mubarak, son of current President Hosni Mubarak. It is still unknown whether President Hosni Mubarak, who has been ruling the country since 1981, will attend the elections in 2011.
However, experts believe that if Moussa participates in elections, he will not make strong competition to Mubarak's son, as he is closely linked with the Egyptian government.
Moussa told reporters that the president may be anyone, including current president's son Gamal Mubarak.
British analyst Pratt, who worked in Egypt on human rights project, believes that the regime is giving a green light to Amr Moussa to put forward his candidate for president to provide legitimacy to a process that has been widely criticised by opponents of the regime as paving the way for the succession of Gamal Mubarak as president.
However, an Egyptian expert Amr Hashem Rabia believes that Moussa's nomination has no special background, because many opposition and independent candidates are also running for the presidency of Egypt.
There are no prerequisites indicating that Moussa nominates for the benefit of the ruling regime, Hashim Rabia, Egyptian policy analyst at Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, told Trend .
According to Arab media, Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei also intends to fight for the presidency.
A group of young activists in Egypt appealed to ElBaradei to put forward his candidature in the upcoming presidential elections, BBC reported. ElBaradei, who will leave the post of head of the IAEA by the end of the year, is known to have repeatedly acted with criticism of the current government of Egypt.
Professor of international law George Bisharat assumes that Moussa could not literally "give" votes for him to Mubarak, he could only encourage his followers to vote for Mubarak.
"This is theoretically possible, but it does not seem likely to me. I'm not sure what Moussa or Mubarak would gain from it," Bisharat, Professor of Law at the University of California,
The experts were unanimous in their opinion that even if the authority in Egypt replaces, the policy of the country will remain the same.
Cairo remains the main player in the Arab-Israeli reconciliation and negotiations between the Arab political structures. Egypt, which has diplomatic relations with Israel, enjoys broad material and political support of Washington.
The importance of Egypt in the Arab world was testified by the fact that the U.S. President Barack Obama made his first appeal to the Muslim countries from the tribune of Cairo University in June.
However, the U.S. State Department and the EU have repeatedly accused the Egyptian leadership of violating human rights in the country, particularly of members of political parties.
Pratt believes that whether Gamal Mubarak or Amr Moussa becomes future president will not usher in a transformation of the current authoritarian system since they are both allied to the current regime.
American expert Bisharat also does not expect change in the human rights situation in Egypt in the near future because human rights were abused under presidents Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak, despite the fact that their political outlooks and policies were divergent.
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