There is much news floating around about the possibility that Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei intends to run for president in the upcoming elections. But nobody has bothered himself to tackle the core of the issue. The main point is not ElBaradei's desire for nomination. Many people want the same. But a personal will has never been the sole means for a person to reach his or her goal. Will must be accompanied by capability and possibility, and both need to be tackled frankly. For the second time, the core of the issue is not ElBaradei's declaration that he "might" run for the post, as that means he is still thinking through the matter, but simultaneously has not ruled out the possibility. So his position is between "no" and "yes." For the third time, the principal issue is not that the IAEA manager bound his nomination to the existence of guarantees electoral transparency. He went beyond that when he declared that if he nominated himself, he would want written guarantees of fair elections. We hoped ElBaradei could explain how can these guarantees be written and where he can obtain such a thing. For the fourth time, the main issue is not that major parties disagree on whether ElBaradei could nominate himself as a member of one of them. Obviously, these parties, if not rejecting the idea completely, will have their reservations, and might deem the whole idea illusionary and a product of excessive optimism by those who are enthusiastic for his nomination and give him non-stop support. I repeat for the fifth time that the main point is not the candidacy of any partisan nominee which depends on his party's representation in the parliament. After the upcoming parliamentary elections, the position of these parties in the People's Assembly will change. These elections will decide which party remains in parliament and which will leave. All the discussion about nominating ElBaradei through any party is mere talk amd nothing more. A party's right to provide a nominee for presidency depends on the level of its representation in the parliament in the first place. The core point, ladies and gentlemen, is that the nomination of ElBaradei, or even Amr Moussa, is a serious twist in the quest for amending article 76 of the constitution. Just as before ElBaradei and Moussa declared that they might run for president, all the talk about the possibility of amending the article was futile. But these days, we are seeing shifts that make people change their view that this article is the sole obstacle to presidential candidacy. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
