CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's youngest son Gamal on Wednesday insisted that he would not be a candidate in presidential elections set for September.
"I am not a candidate, I have repeated it many times in the past and I am repeating it again today," said the 42-year-old during a press conference at the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party.
He rejected as "baseless" suggestions that his father had in February ordered a change in the constitution allowing other candidates to stand in the election simply so that Gamal could run.
"If certain people want to create such illusions and believe in them, that's their problem," he said.
Gamal heads the NDP's influential policies committee, but both he and his father have vehemently denied any attempt to impose a hereditary presidency.
Gamal said his father had "not yet taken a position" on whether the incumbent would be a candidate for a fifth term as Egypt's head of state.
