CAIRO: Most leaders of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church would vote for President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal if he chose to run in the 2011 presidential election, a top cleric said on Sunday.

Anba Morcos, a Cairo bishop and the church's spokesman, said the leadership is opposed to the principle of inheritance of power but would nevertheless endorse Mubarak junior, who heads the ruling National Democratic Party's politburo.

"If elections take place, I would vote for Gamal Mubarak because he is an economics man and was brought up in a firmly established political household, and this is the view of most members of the Holy Synod,"

Morcos said in an interview with the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The Holy Synod is the church's highest council, headed by Pope Shenouda III.

Asked if the backing for the president's son means the church supports inheritance of power, he said: "No, we are against inheritance of power.

Egypt is a free country where there is no inheritance. I would support Gamal as a candidate."

Hosni Mubarak has always denied any ambition to start a presidential dynasty similar to the accession in Syria, where President Bashar Al-Assad succeeded his father Hafez on his death in 2000.

But Gamal's meteoric rise through NDP ranks has fuelled speculation that he is being groomed for succession.

In 2005, Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for the last 27 years, won Egypt's first contested presidential election.

In the run-up to the election, Shenouda openly backed the incumbent despite complaints from the Coptic community that the church should stay out of politics.

Egypt's Copts — the largest Christian community in the Middle East — account for an estimated six to 10 percent of the country's 76 million inhabitants and complain of systematic discrimination and harassment. –AFP