And as a wedding gift from Dad, Egypt’s presidency?

SHARM EL SHEIK, EGYPT —  For weeks, Egyptians have been frantic with speculation: the dress, the diamond and, of course, the nickname.

After Bennifer, Tomkat and Brangelina, “now there is ... Gaga?” mused one blogger.

“Gaga” would be Gamal Mubarak, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Khadija Gamal, daughter of a well-known business tycoon. The couple held a wedding reception Friday at this exclusive Red Sea resort.

But as the chattering classes wondered what the bride would wear, opposition leaders and analysts were concerned with much darker designs. In Egypt, it is widely believed that the wedding is a ploy to make sure the younger Mubarak succeeds his father, who has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since 1981.

“There is definitely a link,” said Ibrahim Eissa, a journalist and outspoken critic of Mubarak’s regime. “The Egyptian people will not accept a bachelor president easily.”

Although Gamal Mubarak has denied wanting to become president -- most recently in an interview this week with the Arabic satellite TV network Orbit -- some observers say the power grab has been carefully planned.

For one thing, the wedding comes on the heels of constitutional amendments made in late March, allegedly to ensure a smooth transition between father and son.

Though slow to mature, the younger Mubarak’s political ambition has been in ample evidence lately, they say.

“The man denies [interest in] the presidency. However, everybody understands that this is not a serious denial. If he is serious about it, he should stay away from playing a political role,” Eissa said.

Mubarak began his career as an investment banker in London but returned to Cairo in the mid-’90s, attempting to establish his own party. When that floundered, he joined his father’s National Democratic Party, heading the important Policies Committee.

He soon began preaching a package of economic reform dubbed “the new thinking,” and within a few years he had pushed aside the old guard of the ruling party and established himself and his retinue of businessmen as Egypt’s new power brokers.

But in a country where millions of people live below the poverty line, Mubarak has been criticized for appearing aloof from the citizenry and its problems. He is described as an instrument of big business and is associated with “crony capitalism” in the Egyptian media.

The woman he married is blond, almost 20 years his junior and a virtual unknown. Khadija Gamal recently graduated with a business degree from American University in Cairo, also the alma mater of her husband and, according to news reports, the place they met. On their first public date, they went to the World Economic Forum here last year.

The religious part of their wedding -- signing the marriage contract -- took place April 28 at the Sunni Muslim mosque Al Azhar, one of the oldest in Cairo, and was presided over by the country’s top cleric.

Omar Suleiman, head of Egyptian intelligence, acted as the official witness, according to reports in several newspapers. Afterward, the couple held a reception for about 500 people, mostly government officials, who weren’t allowed to take pictures. Fashion-savvy guests reported that the bride wore a dress by Lebanese designer Elie Saab.

What she would wear for Friday’s party had been kept a secret, but Mubarak revealed in an interview that Amr Diab, an Egyptian singer and a friend of the couple, would perform at the party, attended by a few hundred close friends and family members.

“You groom of the state,” Egyptian dissident poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote recently. “Congratulations to the groom, you who are getting us as your inheritance.”

Others among the opposition were more prosaic.

“The marriage of Gamal Mubarak is no different from the marriage of any Egyptian citizen,” said Amin Iskandar, an opposition leader.

But Mubarak, the son of a president who has ruled for more than a quarter of a century, is not like any other Egyptian.

In certain Cairene circles, he is viewed as a dapper, well-educated and, until recently, very eligible bachelor. The fact that he was 43 and had never married had been a matter of frequent comment in Egypt.

“When will he get married if he doesn’t now?” asked Magdi Mehanna, a prominent columnist.

A few years ago, the White House was demanding democratic reform in the Middle East, believing that would uproot extremism. However, the civil war in Iraq and the sweeping electoral victories of Palestinian and Egyptian Islamists have silenced those demands.

Egypt’s regime is taking the opportunity to secure the transition of power from father to son, in part because “there are concerns about the president’s health,” Eissa said.

The wedding celebration took place on the president’s 79th birthday at a resort spot that has long been his favored refuge. Hosni Mubarak has been ensconced at his presidential villa for years on the southern tip of the Sinai desert, hundreds of miles from chaotic Cairo and its poverty and pollution.

As the celebrations got underway, protesters in the capital tried to gather under the slogan “Go and marry her, but don’t marry our country.” They were met at Talaat Harb Square by hundreds of riot police and undercover officers. The crowd quickly dispersed.

louise.roug@latimes.com