CAIRO
A campaign spokesman for presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi said that recent negative statements about the latter by ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak were "an honor to be added to Sabbahi's record."
For the first time since his 2011 ouster, the octogenarian ex-president held a recorded interview with private daily Al-Masry al-Youm, released on the paper's website on Wednesday.
During the interview, Mubarak described Sabbahi as "no good" and "not fit" to be president.
Mubarak said Sabbahi had merely used the name of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser – who Sabbahi, a veteran Nasserist politician, considers a role model – to promote his own political ambitions.
"Mubarak's statements leave no doubt that leading figures of the corrupt Mubarak regime are waging a smear campaign against Sabbahi," Sabbahi spokesman Amr Badr said in a strongly-worded statement late Wednesday.
"Sabbahi represents the future that Egyptians chose after 30 years of corruption and despotism under Mubarak," Badr said.
"This campaign by Mubarak regime figures against Sabbahi shows the people that the corrupt regime is trying to stage a comeback," he added.
He went on to assert: "Sabbahi was an outspoken opponent of Mubarak… He participated in and encouraged the January 25 [2011] uprising."
In February, Sabbahi – who came in third in 2012 presidential polls won by Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi – announced his intention to run for top office.
Sabbahi, the founder of the leftist Popular Current movement, and former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi are the two most prominent figures to have announced an intention to run in the polls, slated for May 26-27.
In the interview, Mubarak advised Egyptians to vote for al-Sisi, who resigned from his post as defense minister last month before declaring his candidacy.
Al-Sisi widely seen as the driving force behind last July's ouster of Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
