Hossam Khairallah

Former general intelligence officer Hossam Khairallah, a war veteran and currently chairman of the Nile Investment Company and chairman of the New Cairo Club, appeals to the average Egyptian citizen with his promise of security in his bid for Egypt’s highest office. A lieutenant general in Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate for 20 years, 67-year old Khairallah retired in 2005 after a solid career in the field of national security after reaching the position of information director with the rank of agency first deputy. He comes from a long line of security apparatus personnel: His grandfather, Commander Mohamed Hamed, was the Giza police chief and a military governor during World War II; his father, Major General Ahmed Hossam Khairallah, was deputy prime minister, the governor of Aswan, the founder of Egypt’s Central Security Agency and Cairo’s security director; and his uncle was a member of Egypt’s Royal Police and the Royal Guard during King Farouk’s reign. He believes that such a background gives him the skills necessary to become the next president of Egypt. Capitalizing on his network of important institutions, businessmen and ministries, Khairallah positions himself as a man who sacrifices to achieve his goal with a military pedigree to support it. Khairallah served as an officer in the Egyptian Armed Forces as a lieutenant general until 1976 and is a veteran of both the Yemen conflict of the 1960s and the 1973 war with Israel. But he was quick to point out to local media that his decision to run had nothing to do with the military establishment, even though it was an honor for him to serve. But with a history filled with military figures serving in Egypt’s top post (Mohamed Naguib, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak) since the fall of the monarchy in 1952, many are hesitant to elect someone who once wore a military uniform. And with many criticizing the performance of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) post-revolution, detractors may be quick to question the sincerity of a candidate varnished by the same brush. But Khairallah assures the public that he is not the military’s candidate. He does, however, emphasize that his military experience and his background in intelligence would give him an advantage when it comes to dealing with the big issues confronting Egypt and how to solve them strategically. Initially, Khairallah’s presidential nomination did not receive backing from any of Egypt’s post-revolution political parties. A valid explanation for this lack of support could be that most presidential candidates were visible during the revolution, while Khairallah did not make public appearances in Tahrir Square. His stance on the revolution was unknown, and there was no form of interaction with the youth movements behind it. This may well have been because of the sensitivity of his former position, particularly given Khairallah’s conviction that “the revolution is not yet complete. But it established a new basis of legitimacy, marking a turning point in the history of Egypt.” Presidential Agenda Now supported by the Democratic Peace Party, Khairallah has a 19-point platform and plans to start with economic development, education, healthcare, reducing unemployment and civility of state. All of this, he believes, falls under the umbrella of national security and will serve to bring order back to Egypt. Part of his developmental plans to accommodate Egypt’s growing population is to turn the North Coast into a haven of agricultural development from the Qatara depression all the way to the Western oases. He has been quoted in the local media as saying that, “In the future we will have no option. We inhabit 6% of Egypt’s total land area. With a natural growth rate of 1%, our population will be 120 million in 2020, and by 2050 it will have risen to 162 million.” Focusing on those frequently marginalized, Khairallah heard what people had to say on the streets of Egypt when he toured the northern and southern governorates to make sure his program represents the majority of the country, not only the Cairo-centric minority. The Positives Khairallah asserts he opposed the issue of presidential succession, which allegedly pitted him against his former boss Omar Suleiman. Khairallah was quoted in the local press saying that if Omar Suleiman ran for the presidential elections he would not withdraw from the race. The security veteran believes the most suitable system for Egypt is a mixed presidential-parliamentary system. He filed appeals against eight candidates running for presidency from political parties not represented in Parliament, stating these were legal violations. He quickly came under fire because many of the appeals were filed against friends. In his defense Khairallah explained that he felt compelled to go ahead with the appeals because he respected the law and aimed to build a new civil Egypt.