Egypt: The Fall, Rise and Fall of Omar Suleiman · Global Voices
Salah Almhamdi

It has been a dramatic few weeks in Egyptian politics. On April 6, 2012, Omar Suleiman, Egypt's former vice president and intelligence chief, announced his candidacy for president. Omar Suleiman is considered by many Egyptians to be part of the counter-revolution, one of the “remnants”, or unreformed loyalists of the former regime.
On April 13, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square to protest against Suleiman's presidential campaign. Then, in a surprising turn of events, on April 14 it was announced that Suleiman was one of ten candidates barred from standing in the elections, apparently because he failed to get enough signatures to endorse his candidacy.
A panoramic view of Cairo's Tahrir Square showing tens of thousands of protesting against the candidacy of Omar Suleiman, April 13, 2012. Image by Flickr user Mosa'ab Elshamy (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
On April 12 blogger Raafat Rohaiem attacked Suleiman:
On April 14 Maikel Nabil Sanad, a prominent blogger and activist, wrote in a blog post entitled “Against Omar Suleiman”:
"The subtle questioning of Omar Suleiman's loyalties in Tahrir Square." Image by Twitter user @HannahAllam.
Suleiman has made an appeal to those (including Egypt's Christians) who are concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood is seeking to push through a conservative Islamic agenda in the country, and argues that he would stop Egypt becoming a “religious state”. Indeed, there are those who feel he would do a good job. Timmy tweeted:
@tamerhegab: To be honest, I don't mind Omar Soliman being president. The country will be up and running in 4 years; the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] will have gone. Perfect.
However, Mena Makram tweeted:
On April 7, just after Suleiman announced his candidacy, political cartoonist Carlos Latuff published this image of him rising from the “trash bin of history”:
"Omar Suleiman, former Mubarak strongman to join Egypt presidential race." Image by Carlos Latuff.
After the news of Suleiman's disqualification, artist Hazem Arafa made some changes:
Cartoon of Omar Suleiman by Carlos Latuff with changes by Hazem Arafa.
Maha Abouelenein believes that there is still hope for Suleiman:
@mahagaber: The only candidate that can modify his paperwork to qualify is Omar Soliman – he has 48 hours to get remaining tawkeels [endorsements]
Suleiman's campaign has announced that all legal measures will be taken to challenge the election committee’s decision.