Egyptian Presidential Race Gets Underway

Registration for candidates began Saturday and runs until April 8, which is expected to,  create a field of about 10 or so serious contenders for the office. Election day is May 23  and 24. Even though the revolution that led to elections brought an end to Hosni Mubarak’s  rule, the front-running candidates in fact are holdovers from the old regime, the Media Line reports

Amr Moussa was head of the Arab League and foreign minister under Mubarak. Mansour Hassan was a minister under Anwar Sadat, Mubarak’s predecessor, and Ahmed Shafiq,a former air force commander who appointed by prime minister in the final days of Mubarak’s  rule. Others are Islamists -- Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, a prominent Salafist.
The committee charged with rewriting the constitution has yet to be appointed; meaning that the new president will not have his power defined when he takes office,the Media Line concludes.

There is speculation in some Egyptian press that the Islamic Brotherhood  and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces( SCAF) are seeking a concensus canididate. As with the Libyan and Tunisian revolutions there is a tendency for voters to prefer those candidates who had no connections with the previous regime.