Candidate Suleiman seeks to prevent Egypt from becoming “religious state”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hosni Mubarak's former vice president said he decided to run for president to prevent Islamists from turning Egypt into a "religious state," AP reported.

Omar Suleiman, who was also Mubarak's long-serving intelligence chief, said in an interview published Thursday that the Muslim Brotherhood's fielding of a presidential candidate "horrified" Egyptians. The Islamic fundamentalist Brotherhood, which has emerged as Egypt's most powerful political bloc after last year's uprising, reversed an earlier decision not to field a candidate.

Suleiman told the weekly El-Fagr that the Brotherhood would control all state institutions if it wins the presidency and warned Egypt would be isolated internationally if that happened. The Brotherhood already controls just under half of parliament's seats and is the single largest bloc. Together with other Islamists, they have a 70 percent majority in the chamber.

"It is my belief that those who demand that I run, like a majority of this nation's citizens, are in a predicament and indeed the whole state is in a predicament, especially after the Brotherhood decided to field one of its leaders for the presidency after it pledged not to," Suleiman, 75, said in the interview.

"That change struck horror in the souls of members of the Egyptians society. If the Brotherhood's candidate wins the presidential election, Egypt will be turned into a religious state. All state institutions will be controlled by the Brotherhood."

Suleiman's comments came as the Islamist-dominated parliament debated a draft bill to strip top figures from the Mubarak regime of their political rights, including voting and running for office, for 10 years. If adopted, the law would disqualify Suleiman from running in the May 23-24 presidential election along with another candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, who was Mubarak's last prime minister.