‘Omar Suleiman rightfully disqualified to run as president’

The comment comes as the country's presidential election, due on May 23 and 24, draws near, while a run-off will be held from June 16 to 17, if necessary.

An interview with the director of the Center for Middle East Studies, Hisham Jaber, to further discuss the issue.

We also have the opinions of two other guests: London-based writer and journalist, Adel Lotfy and former Egyptian Deputy FM, Hussein Haridy.

Mr. Hisham Jaber let us have your view on this as well- the question of whether this committee has been influenced by the military council- we were hearing some protesters in Egypt making claims and chanting in their protests “the military council and the US are one hand,” they were saying that these people have been trying to, with the support of foreign powers, they were saying, trying to influence the political process, trying to influence those decision makings.

So what do you think about the independence of this Election Commission and the role of the military here?

Jaber: Yeah, nobody can deny that the role of the military and the armed forces in Egypt, no one can deny this and they will still have their influence and they are fighting now as we said before the election of the new president to have, to keep and to protect their role and their influence inside the Egyptian society. No one can deny this, and we will explain this in detail.

Their role in the foreign policy, their role in the internal problems in Egypt, their role in the economy, because the armed forces in Egypt is not only army but it is involved in Banking, in economics, in education and in security inside the country and also in the foreign relations, specially the relationship between armed forces in Egypt and the United States.

And we cannot deny also that the army in Egypt, this Military Council had that very effective role to kick out the ex-president Mubarak, otherwise the revolution could stay for months or more.

But if you ask me about the influence of the military institution on the Presidential Commission, I do not think so.

I think that the Presidential Commission, like your guest said, has a lot of experts and trust among the population in Egypt.

The reason and the proof of this, that when they reject [Former Mubarak Spy Chief] Omar Suleiman, nobody can deny that Omar Suleiman is far away from the Military Council.

Omar Suleiman, in the days of Mubarak was very close to the military constitution and I do not think when they have the courage to reject the candidature of Mr. General Omar Suleiman for only 36 voice to compare with 30,000 voices he needed, he has only lack of 36 voices, was rejected for this reason.

Not apparently because he was one of the pillars of the last regime. That was the reason of the commission, he did not have, he did not complete the conditions and also when they rejected Khairat al-Shater, Khairat Shater is the first candidature of the Muslim Brotherhood who controlled the parliament and nobody can deny also their influence now after the election in the Egyptian society.

Mr. Jaber speaking of the Muslim Brotherhood, what is being said a lot now, is in the media’s word or in the words of some observers, the domination by the Muslim Brotherhood, they are saying that the fact that they are rising, the fact that one of their candidates has been disqualified.

Do you agree with the analysis first of all that the Muslim Brotherhood is dominating politics now in Egypt and that should be viewed as a threat?

Jaber: You know, of course. Everybody knows that at the beginning of the revolution, Muslim Brotherhood did not move, did not have anything of this revolution.

But they are smart enough; they took over the result of the revolution. Now they are in the parliament, no one can deny this, and let me tell you why, this is democracy.

People in Egypt after 40 years of dictatorship of poverty and young man who did not find any jobs, they had no choices, whether to go to hashish or go to the mosque to listen to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now they left the power, why did they took those by voices and they won in the election, because they are secular like Mr. Lotfy [other guest of the program] was talking about the intelligent person, intellectuals.

It is not enough, the people in Egypt do not need intelligent people, they want somebody who can answer their questions or can be close to them.

When the Salafis came with their invasion in the election many people of Egypt among the secular and the national parties, they moved to the Muslim Brotherhood to support them because they consider the Muslim Brotherhood as a buffer zone between the Salafis and the Seculars.

Now they are in power, of course they control the parliament. And like Mr. Haridy [another guest on the show] said that the armed forces will go back to their barracks, I do not think so, because the armed forces as we said who was in power for 60 years, they will not go to their barracks.

They will try first, to have the new president in their range and to their side; otherwise they will make because the parliament is not on their side.

As we said, Muslim Brotherhood; they will try to make a compromise and they started to do it with the Muslim Brotherhood about the future of the military institutions in the country, and I think the Muslim Brotherhood will make this compromise with the armed forces.

Now we have to wait to see the new president and the power will be divided, like Mr. Haridy said.