Activist group promotes Egypt’s intelligence chief for president

Group promotes Egypt’s spy chief for president

CAIRO — A group of activists have hung up posters around Egypt’s capital supporting the country’s intelligence chief as a possible candidate in next year’s presidential elections.

Launched Thursday, the campaign for Omar Suleiman is the latest stab against a possible father-son succession in which President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s leader of nearly 30 years, passes power to his son, banker-turned-politician Gamal.

Mubarak, 82, and his son deny such a plan exists, but Gamal Mubarak’s political influence has been growing since 2000.

Opposition has been vocal against such a succession, floating names of alternative candidates like Suleiman and former U.N. nuclear agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei.

The posters call Suleiman a “real alternative.”