CAIRO: Amid fears of an expected organizational vacuum, leaders of opposition movement Kefaya are pressuring the incumbent general coordinator Abdel Gelil Mostafa to remain in office for another year after he had announced he would step down at the end of the month.
After repeatedly refusing the offer [to lead the movement], Mostafa agreed to take up the position last March on the condition of ending his term by Dec. 31, 2008.
“I am not going to change my mind on the matter. I accepted the position on one condition and that is to finish [Abdel Wahab] El Messiry’s term which ends this year, Mostafa told Daily News Egypt, emphasizing that this is his final decision.
However, Yehia Al Gazzaz, member of Kefaya’s coordination committee, said: “We still hope that Mostafa will continue leading the movement.
Although there are several eligible candidates for the position, it would be impossible to find someone other than Mostafa who earns the support of the majority.
The succession of Mostafa will also help stabilize the movement, he added.
Assistant General Coordinator and Kefaya co-founder George Ishaq said that the coordination committee is scheduled to meet early next week to choose a new coordinator for the movement.
Kefaya leaders are still discussing the profile of candidates, he added.
Ishaq predicts that the “movement’s leaders would agree on one nominee . which will end the crisis.
Kefaya, the most prominent of Egypt’s opposition movements, was formed in 2004 with Ishaq as its general coordinator until 2007.
El Messiry succeeded Ishaq, but died before finishing his term. This led Mostafa to step in after he had previously refused the position; at the time, starting at the end of Ishaq’s term, the movement was experiencing internal turmoil.
At the end of 2006, seven members of the coordination committee resigned due to internal conflicts within the movement. Among the seven were Al Gazzaz and Magdy Karkar.
In order to regain the lost members, El Messiry was appointed general coordinator to work along with four new assistant coordinators from different political affiliations in order to combat the structure of a one-man-show movement that drove some members to resign.
The current assistant coordinators are Ishaq, who represents the independents in the movement; Karkar, representing the Islamists; leftist Kamal Khalil representing the socialists; and Abdel Aziz Al Husseiny representing the Nasserists.
