Egyptian consensus candidate to be decided by May 7

Abdel Moniem Aboul Fotouh, Hamdeen Sabahi, Hisham el-Bastawisi, Abul Ezz Al-Hariri and Khaled Ali Cairo – Akram Ali Informed political sources, who wish to remain anonymous, have told Arabstoday that representatives of the electoral campaigns, of the candidates Abdel Moniem Aboul Fotouh, Hamdeen Sabahi , Hisham el-Bastawisi, Abul Ezz Al-Hariri and Khaled Ali are to choose a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.
According to these sources, the meeting delegates agreed on forming a committee of \"wise men\", which will include the former president of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, the politician Mohamed Abul-Ghar, the head of the Egyptian Association for Change Abdel Galil Mustafa, Mohamed Ghoneim, the political researcher Ammar Ali Hassan, as well as the overseas former Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson Kamal el-Helbawy. Also to be included are the writers Sakina Fouad and Samir Morcos, the journalist Hamdi Kandi as well as the consultants Ahmed Makki and Hossam al-Ghariani. The popularly-proclaimed \"Speaker of the revolution\", Mazhar Shaheen, is to study the criteria on which the candidate will be elected.
The committee is scheduled to hold a number of meetings with the candidates individually and together. It is hoped that the result of these meetings will be announced before the May 7 deadline to withdraw candidates.
The sources stated: \"The five campaigns will continue their work. However once a candidate has been agreed on, the other four will then automatically withdraw themselves from the candidacy in his favour. Next, the five campaigns come together to support the candidate in order to prevent fragmentation of votes and to rescue the revolution.\"
The meeting\'s delegates also agreed on a number of principles that they say should form the framework of the state in the coming stages. Among these are the secular nature of the state, its Arab-Islamic identity, the guarantee of of citizens\' rights, the principle relating to the segregation of powers, as well as judicial independence. Also on the list are government accountability, the right to form parties, freedom of media, as well as a mandate forcing the new president to abandon his political and ideological affiliations.
This meeting is the third of its kind to be convened between the organisers of the presidential electoral campaigns. They agreed in their previous meeting that if no consensus was reached, then they would all have to accept the decisions of the \"wise men committee\". They will also be asked to submit written pledges to the committee\'s decision. They are also expected to issue a joint statement that would confirm their allegiance to whomever would be elected by the committee, as well as to unify all the campaigns into one.