First, however, they simply have to change the Egyptian constitution, which currently allows only one presidential candidate. The three - former Egyptian parliamentarian Muhammad Farid Hasanin, writer Nawal Sadawi and human rights activist Saad Eddine Ibrahim - began collecting signatures Monday on a petition to do just that.
The three men announced that they will be running for the top post themselves, Arabicnews.com reported this week. The 'elections,' with one candidate as of now, are scheduled for September 2005.
According to the current Egyptian law, the sole presidential candidate is selected by the Egyptian parliament. The parliament is dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party. Thus, this coming May the parliament will almost assuredly select, as it has for the past two decades, the incumbent Mubarak as presidential 'candidate' for what is technically a national referendum on the selection.
Hosni Mubarak, president since 1981, received an unsurprising 93.79% of votes cast in the September 1999 referendum. In the previous three such referendums, he received more than 95% of the vote.