Nobel laureate El Baradei enters politics, launches party

Cairo: Nobel laureate Mohamed El Baradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, has launched a new political party that he says aims to unite Egyptians and work as a platform for the country’s revolutionaries. The new party called ‘Constitution Party’ seeks to represent the revolutionary forces that have been sidelined and marginalised since the 25 January uprising last year, El Baradei told a press conference in downtown Cairo last evening. ElBaradei, seen as one of the forces that fuelled the uprising leading to the ouster of long-standing leader Hosni Mubarak, said the party would take some years to become Egypt’s number one political party. [caption id=“attachment_292337” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“El Baradei, one-time presidential hopeful, said one proof that the transition period has been problematic is the Parliament. AP”]  [/caption] “This is a project for the future,” he said, adding “this party will end up including the 20 million (people) that made the revolution, and they’ll achieve the revolution’s demands together.” The Nobel laureate said his party aims to unite Egyptians and move forward to achieve the demands of the revolution, which have been forgotten in the troubled transitional period. Following the ouster of the former president, Egypt entered a transition period in which political reform has been stagnant and the regime’s hated “repressive” policies have remained in place. El Baradei, one-time presidential hopeful, said one proof that the transition period has been problematic is the Parliament, which he describes as not a representative of all Egyptians. Islamists control nearly two thirds of the Parliament’s two chambers. Despite the fact that Islamists initially refused to take part in the uprising called by secular forces on 25 January, 2011, they appear to be the main beneficiaries of Mubarak’s ouster. PTI