Nobel peace prize winner Mohamed El-Baradei has launched a new party, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky Four months after his withdrawal from the presidential race, Mohamed El-Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, launched a new political party which he said aims to rule the country in four years. The new Constitution Party marks a return to public life for El-Baradei, who declared in January that he would not run for presidency during a "scrambled transition period". "The aim of this party is to save the 25 January Revolution which has been derailed and is almost aborted, and to restore our unity," El-Baradei told a crowd of supporters and journalists in a press conference held at the Press Syndicate this week. "When this revolution started we never imagined the conditions we are in and the tragic transition we are living in today." During the press conference, El-Baradei said the party aims to win the majority of parliamentary seats in the next elections. He added that the first task was to get at least five million Egyptians active in the party. "We hope through this party to start anew in building the country on the basis of democracy and justice," he said. El-Baradei pulled out from the presidential race in January. He justified the decision by saying he could not take part in an election unless it was held within a real democratic system. His supporters often blame him for distancing himself from the political spotlight. His absence from street protests and preference for quiet political negotiations led to a failure to build grassroots support. The Constitution Party is not yet officially registered and will be ready to start work in two or three months. The party must register at least 1,000 members to get a licence, according to the political parties law. The party founders are several activists and public figures known for their opposition to Hosni Mubarak and criticism of the ruling military council. The list includes the former leader of the Kifaya movement, George Ishak, novelist Alaa El-Aswani, economics professor Galal Amin, journalists Ibrahim Eissa and Wael Qandil, activist Gamila Ismail, law professor Hossameddin Eissa, member of the National Association for Change (NAC), film director Khaled Youssef, and a number of youth activists who played a key role in the revolution. The name of the party has changed from the Revolution Party to the Constitution Party. According to Shadi El-Ghazali Harb, a senior member in the party, the new name seeks to present a message that the party is for all Egyptians, and is not a single political group. It is also meant to show it is beyond ideological and political affiliation. "Just as the constitution is the cornerstone of any democratic state, we aim to be the cornerstone of Egyptian unity to rebuild the country. Our new party is for liberal, leftists and Islamists and for any other political ideology," Harb said. In February 2010, El-Baradei announced the formation of the National Association for Change (NAC). The main target of the association, which included prominent intellectuals and political figures, was to press Mubarak's regime, which was still in power, for political reforms. Ahmed Darg, the leader of (NAC) and a co-founder of El-Baradei's new party, said that the goal of the party is to be an umbrella to all youth movements and other political groups that played a strong role at the start of the revolution but have been marginalised over the last year. The party's main role, Darg said, is to regain the "save the revolution" goals, and to put the country on the right track. "Now the Islamists are controlling the parliament and the military is working hard to reproduce the former regime, so the country needs a moderate leader like El-Baradei." Pointing to the Islamists, El-Baradei said the Egyptian people had been "sidelined" during what he described as a "tragic transition" that produced a parliament of "dubious legitimacy". The parliament could be dissolved by a decision from the Higher Constitutional Court, as the electoral law contradicts the Constitutional Declaration that has been ruling the country since March 2011. Analysts raised questions about the timing of the El-Baradei announcement of the new party while the country is busy preparing for the presidential elections. Abdel-Rahman, a member in the party and the Youth Revolutionary Coalition, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the timing had nothing to do with the elections, and that preparations to register the party and establish offices in the governorates might take several months. "So actually the party will start working after the presidential elections." A few weeks before the party was launched, there were rumours that El-Baradei might re-enter the presidential race. Among the factors fuelling the rumours was the fact that his supporters were able to collect nearly 50,000 official proxies required by the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC). Presidential candidates can run if they win the support of 30 members of parliament, or get 30,000 signed proxies or are competing on the backing of a political party in parliament. The PEC, however, closed its doors last week, announcing the final list of names of candidates. photo: AP
