Arab League chief nominated for presidency online

Young Egyptians demand anthem, flag change
Arab League chief nominated for presidency online

Monday, 07 February 2011

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A group of Egyptian youths established an online group that supports the nomination of Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa for presidency after the departure of the incumbent Hosni Mubarak.

In a show of support to the January 25 uprising, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa visited Tahrir Square in Downtown Cairo, where the protests take place, and talked to several of the youths who have started a sit-in until the government responds to their demands, the Egyptian official newspaper al-Ahram reported Monday.

Moussa’s visit encouraged a considerable portion of young Egyptians to support his nomination for presidency in September 2011 after Mubarak’s term expires and drove them to establish a group on the social networking website Facebook to call upon Moussa to run in the upcoming elections. The group is called “Supporters of Amr Moussa as president of Egypt.”

Members of the Facebook group, who currently exceed 10,500, demand that in case Moussa becomes the Egyptian president, he should change the Egyptian flag and go back to the old one before the 1952 Revolution and has a crescent and three stars.

They also call for changing the national anthem and going back to the one used before the reign of Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat.

The group includes a biography of Amr Moussa to familiarize Egyptian youth with his history and achievements as well as a carefully chosen album that highlights his popularity in the Arab world.

Creators of the group call upon members to tell all the people on their friends’ list about it so that as many supporters as possible can be gathered and demand the unification of all groups that support Moussa.

One of the biggest Facebook groups formed in the wake of the protests to support Amr Moussa is called “Amr Moussa- The President of Egypt” and has more than 6,000 members.

Other smaller groups include “The campaign to nominate the honorable Egyptian Amr Moussa for presidency,” “Amr Moussa for restoring stability to Egypt,” and “Amr Moussa, save Egypt.”


(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid)

Source: al-Arabiya.
Link: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/07/136657.html.