The pool of possible successors to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak became smaller today with the death of former minister of defense Abdel-Halim Abu Ghazala. The Associated Press is reporting that Abu Ghazala died late Saturday at age 78 (President Mubarak is 80).
Field Marshal Abu Ghazala would not have been a real contender for the Presidency in 2011, since he lacked any significant constituencies and has stayed out of public view for the past two decades. But this wasn't always the case. He will primarily be remembered as one of the last individuals in Egypt with the public prestige, institutional constituency, and ambition to challenge Mubarak (Current Secretary General of the Arab League Amre Moussa is another). Field Marshal Abu Ghazala's challenge effectively ended in 1989, however, when President Mubarak fired him as minister of defense in the wake of an arms-smuggling scandal, replacing him with the less politicized Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Nearly twenty years later Tantawi remains minister of defense, and with the death of Abu Ghazala he becomes Egypt's only living Field Marshal (roughly equivelant to a five-star general in the American system).
Field Marshal Tantawi is known to be loyal to President Mubarak, and has shown little if any aspirations for succeeding him as president. In fact, Tantawi's stewardship of the Egyptian Armed Forces away from politics is one defining theme of the Mubarak years.
