Campaign Wants Egypt's Military Ruler for President
A new campaign has emerged in Egypt aiming to persuade Egyptians to elect military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as the next president, despite almost weekly protests calling on the army to go back to barracks.
Tantawi heads the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which took power when a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, and has been criticized for stalling reform.
The new campaign "Egypt Above All" aims to collect one million signatures to persuade Tantawi to apply for the country's top job, "for the sake of stability", its coordinator Mahmud Attiya was quoted as saying in the state-run daily al-Ahram.
Posters of Tantawi have started to appear in several parts of Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, according to al-Ahram.
A long-time defense minister to Mubarak, Tantawi has vowed to hand power to civilian rule as quickly as possible, but activists accuse him and SCAF of trying to extend their grip on power.
The first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 28. Presidential elections are yet to be set but are not expected before summer 2012.
Source: Agence France Presse
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