Presidential Vote Becoming Egypt's Most Exciting From plumbers to lawyers, dessert chefs to retired master spies, hundreds are trying to join the race for president in what is shaping up to be Egypt's most exciting vote in living memory. The vote is the first since last year's ouster of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising. And Egyptians are reveling in the anything-goes atmosphere after the restricted votes of the past, though most of the would-be candidates won't qualify to run and the front-runner will be whoever is backed by the newly powerful Islamists. Electoral officials said Wednesday that at least 500 Egyptians have taken the first step to run for president, obtaining applications to officially declare their candidacy. Beside the known presidential hopefuls who have been seriously campaigning, the officials said the applicants included a wide range of obscure Egyptians such as journalists, judges, lawyers and school teachers. There are plumbers, coffee shop owners, a cleaning lady, lawyers, a housewife, a dessert chef, judges, lecturers, constitutional experts, restaurant owners and an undertaker from the Nile Delta as well as two career intelligence officers. Egyptian presidential candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, Farghal Abou Daif, a coffee shop owner, second right, is hugged by his supporters in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, March 14, 2012. Officials said Wednesday that at least 500 Egyptians have obtained applications to officially declare their candidacy for the vote, which follows last year's ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/ Amr Nabil) Close With less than four weeks until the deadline to register candidates, there is no clear front-runner among the field of Mubarak-era politicians, retired generals, Islamists and scholars who are leading the pack. Many commentators are speculating that a surprise candidate may emerge at the 11th hour who will sweep the election with the backing of the Islamists and the ruling generals who took over from Mubarak 13 months ago. "Are they planning for a general to appear at the last moment, when all scenarios don't yield a candidate tailor made for the purposes of the (ruling) military council?" wrote columnist Wael Abdel-Fatah Wednesday in the independent el-Tahrir daily. The Muslim Brotherhood, parliament's largest bloc, will not field a candidate from its ranks or support one linked to an Islamist party, but says the next president must have an Islamist background. Power in Egypt has long been concentrated in the hands of the president. Mubarak ran the country with unquestioned authority for 29 years until his ouster in February 2011. And generals who took over from him function as a collective presidency, again with far-reaching powers. The Islamists who have dominated elections for parliament's two chambers would like to curtail the powers of the president's office and give more authority to the legislature. The next president will only be the fifth president in nearly 60 years. The military, Egypt's most dominant force since army officers staged a 1952 coup that toppled the monarchy, has publicly stayed silent on the campaign. But it is widely suspected to be frantically working behind the scenes to ensure that the next president does not remove the immunity it has enjoyed for years from civilian scrutiny or curb its significant influence on politics. The Islamists, particularly the Brotherhood, and the military share considerable common ground and are most likely to back the same candidate, said analyst Khalil el-Anani of Britain's Durham University.