According to one young member of the ruling National Democratic Party, head of the party’s youth committee Muhammad Kamal has launched a campaign to promote Gamal Mubarak, son of President Hosni Mubarak, on social networking website Facebook in the lead-up to presidential elections scheduled for 2011.
This source also said the party planned to pay LE1500 to each member of the promotional drive, which has been dubbed “Participate.”
Campaign team member Ahmed Shuri expressed reservations about calling the initiative a “political campaign” per se. “It’s all speculation, because nobody knows if Gamal Mubarak will even run in elections,” he said. “But it’s normal for any party to promote its leaders.”
Rihab Aboul Eila, a 21-year-old member of the campaign team, said her job was to promote Gamal Mubarak among younger age groups on the website. Both team members, however, denied they were being paid for their activities. “It’s only volunteer work,” they said.
Kamal, for his part, declined to comment. “You’ll find everything on our website,” he said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
