Mubarak posters: Cairo cleared

2005-06-12 20:58

Cairo - Giant portraits of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which hung in many locations of central Cairo in a show of support for him to seek re-election, disappeared on Sunday an AFP photographer reported.

The 3m high portraits, made of wooden planks and lit up by electric bulbs at night, showed the veteran 77-year-old president smiling with his face framed by jet-black hair and his hand at his forehead in salute.

"Seventy million Egyptians say 'yes' to Mubarak," the portraits read. They were signed by Nabil Luka Bebawi, a member of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

The president, who has served as Egypt's head of state since 1981, has not announced whether he will seek a fifth term.

Mubarak won his four previous six-year terms in elections in which he was the sole candidate after being approved by a legislature dominated by his NDP.

Egyptians went to the polls last month in support of multi-candidate elections, as voters overwhelmingly supported a constitutional amendment to allow opposition candidates in the presidential race for the first time.

Opposition groups called for a boycott of the referendum because they said it was too restrictive on potential candidates, and some complained of being beaten, harassed and groped by pro-government mobs on polling day as police looked on.

The portraits disappeared about a week before a planned visit by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said Rice would arrive on June 20.

US President George W Bush called on his Egyptian counterpart to serve as an example by organising free and democratic elections.

Mubarak, under heightened local and international pressure to introduce political reforms in a country still ruled under a state of emergency introduced 24 years ago, had called on Egyptians to "actively participate" in the referendum.

Under the changes applying to the next presidential election in September, independents must collect 250 signatures from MPs, senators and representatives in local councils which are dominated by the ruling party.

The following election in 2011 will further require that political parties field candidates only five years after coming into existence. They should also hold a minimum of five percent of seats in both houses of parliament.

Banners and posters have coated the streets and walls of Cairo, calling for Mubarak to run for office again.

Some pledged allegiance to "Mubarak, then his son, and after that his grandson," in reference to NDP efforts to position Mubarak's son Gamal as his successor whenever Mubarak decides to step down.

Others read "even foetuses in the wombs of their mothers say 'yes' to Mubarak."

- AFP