It is now official: some 20 candidates will be contesting Egypt’s presidential poll next month, pending a formal approval by the electoral commission. Among them are Mubarak’s much-reviled former intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, as well as two candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, even though the Islamic group had promised it would not run. Separately but of utmost significance for the country’s future and stability, the assembly in charge of drafting a new constitution was suspended by a Cairo court on April 10 [2012] over the fact it does not reflect the diversity of Egyptian society. To shed some light on Egypt’s troubled political scene, Al-Monitor spoke to prominent Egyptian journalist and analyst Hisham Kassem.

Al-Monitor:  Who would have thought that Mubarak’s former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman would run? The man was part of a regime accused of corruption and human-rights abuse.

Hisham Kassem:  He is not only part of the former regime; he is probably the second most implicated person in the practices of the old regime after Mubarak himself. In addition, he is also involved in international scandals — for example, in extraordinary renditions when people were transferred from Guantanamo and brought over to Egypt to be tortured. There are lots of reports on that and Suleiman never sued anybody over those reports. He just announced his candidacy but there are already activists attacking him all over the media and they intend on continuing doing so. I guess sometimes when you are so close to power it affects your judgment and that is probably what happened to Omar Suleiman. You could say it is the arrogance of power. His first two statements after he officially announced his candidacy were to claim that the Muslim Brotherhood called him and threatened to kill him and then he said he was ready to open the “black box” and bring out all what he knows about others. It shows that he is not in his right mind.

Al-Monitor:  Does he stand a chance?