We do not know what he is going to say but there are a lot of speculations since last nights.
Some are hopeful that ElBaradei would announce his alliance with Abdel Moneim Abu El Fatouh in the presidential candidate while other are pessimistic and predict that he is going to announce his withdrawal from the presidential elections race. Some took it as a joke and even made a hash tag for it "#elbaradeisurprise"
Unfortunately El Adl party co-founder and MP Mostafa Al Nagar who is very close to ElBaradei and used to be the coordinator of his support campaign before the revolution has announced on twitter that Dr.ElBaradei is going to withdraw from the race for real.
Another person on twitter says that he spoke with Ali ElBaradei , the younger brother of the former head of IAEA and he confirmed what Al Naggar claimed earlier.
If that news is true "it seems so as I got another confirmation from another close source " we will need a good explanation from Dr.ElBaradei.
There is no doubt that whatever ElBaradei says today It will make some happy and it will some sad.
Update :
MP Al Nagar has denied that he stated that ElBaradei is going to withdraw from the presidential elections race.
Nevertheless I got confirmation that he will withdraw from extremely close source in the campaign. We will know the reasons ISA at the press conference after one hour.
It is a strange timing for me because when I look to it from less than 72 hours ElBaradei met with former US president Jimmy Carter as potential presidential candidate and such decisions are not taken in few hours !!
Here is the statement of Dr. ElBaradei in Tahrir newspaper about his decision in Arabic . In nutshell the Nobel peace prize winner critizes the leadership of SCAF and making clear that the old regime has not fallen yet in addition that he will not run in the presidential elections because the elections are supposed to be held before the constitution.
The Pro Elbaradei ultra supporters are swearing to have a new revolution again after that statement. I got no comment currently.
Dr. ElBaradei had a meeting with bunch of journalists like Ibrahim Eissa, Wael Kandel , Dina Abdel Rahman and Reem Magued as well activists like Mostafa Abdel Galil , Alaa El Aswany , Shady Harb where he discussed his reasons about his withdrawal.
His campaign later released a video for ElBaradei where he read the statement.
Amr Moussa reacted on his withdrawal and expressed his sorrow on the decision of ElBaradei. Hadeen Sabhi and Abu Ismail also expressed their sorrow.
To be honest ElBaradei is right. He has been defamed by SCAF via back-channels in public, he should not participate in that fiasco. Not to mention other deplorable acts of State TV in agreement with SCAF past year.
ReplyDeleteMany in Twitter doesn't seem to take ElBaradei seriously, but they should ask themselves why? He has been consistent and on to the point especially on human rights.
Twitter-sphere is just as susceptible to defaming culture in Egypt, unfortunately.
ElBaradei is right, it should have been constitution before elections. Elections first means the Islamists get to turn Egypt into a theocracy. I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Elbaradei has lost a lot by making this video and deciding not to run for presidency. Even though I consider him the best candidate for president out there, I would not give him my vote if he decided to run for presidency again. Elbaradei knew that his chances of winning the elections have declined considerably after the massive victory of the Islamic parties and I would have respected his decision if he had enough courage and explained that to his supporters, who are by the way a lot. Blaming the SCAF for still being in power and not making a new constitution before the elections was too late. I agree that a lot of people did not expect that massive winning of the Islamists but as an experienced politician like him, he should have not made the decision of running for presidency in the first place.
ReplyDeleteEgypt has lost a lot now, and I think many people are reminiscing over the past year and asking themselves: where does Egypt stand now? .. He makes a strong signal by not running for presidency, saying the old system is still in place and he wants no part in it. Because there is no civil power yet and elections alone do not equal democracy. I hope ElBaradei will do good work on the ground amongst the young people and political forces, we should not underestimate the power of working on the ground rather than on top..
DeleteHello Zeinobia.. So long since I did not pass in your blog. And suddenly I see this new which does not give an optimistic hope for the following elections and the democratic constitution. But if he leaves i suppose that it is really impossible for him to perform the success for the people. The condition of this junte staying in power and playing on the division of the people and mostly to control the constitution is not a good new. The question is politics, security, economy, are hold by the Military. there will be surely another revolution which will make people more closely near, and if he is still alive he will come back. Waiting I cannot imagine that he will not follow on the rights and against repression. Any way I wish you a good year 2012 as best as possible.
ReplyDelete