CAIRO — Former President Hosni Mubarak uses a wheelchair, is able to eat little more than Jell-O, and has his two grown sons by his bedside. He suffers from sore joints in his feet, high blood pressure, shortness of breath and, according to rumors widely circulated in the Egyptian and foreign press, he required artificial respiration and heart defibrillation within the space of just 24 hours last weekend. Twice, doctors could not find his pulse, the reports said.

Such public speculation about Mr. Mubarak’s health was a crime during his 30 years in power. But since he received a life sentence on June 2, a torrent of leaks has sprung suggesting that he may be nearing his end. The revolt that ousted him is nearing a climax with a presidential election on Saturday pitting an Islamist group he outlawed against his last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik.

And in the same way news of his deteriorating health was once withheld to protect his image — Egyptians chided his self-regard as pharaoh-like — many people here assume the military-led government is doling out sympathetic details in order to manipulate public opinion. The ruling generals, many assert, are laying the groundwork for Mr. Mubarak to be transferred from a prison hospital to the relative comfort of a military hospital, or perhaps trying to build sympathy for the longtime autocrat to diminish opposition to his former prime minister, Mr. Shafik.

The rumors of his deteriorating health — some denied by government officials — are the latest measure of Egypt’s unsettled state, haunted by divisions and doubts, old specters and fresh paranoia.