CAIRO: Presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei criticized Sunday evening the way the ruling army council and the caretaker government have been running the country over the past six months. ElBaradei, also the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said during the event hosted by El-Adl political party that "bad management" is apparent on different levels. "The most important issue that concerns me is the absence of security. There will be no economy and no stability without security in the country," he said. He described attributing the lack of stability to the January 25 uprising as a "fallacy", adding that restoring safety is the responsibility of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the government. "The production wheel did not stop because of the protesters in Tahrir or [elsewhere]," he said. The "unclear vision" is another factor contributing to the current state of instability. "When SCAF took over the country in February, they said the transitional phase would take six months. I believe this was impractical and unrealistic," ElBaradei argued. "We haven't developed [since then]. We even encountered a setback. The people were united six months ago [unlike the situation now]." There is also no clarity regarding the parliament law, he said. "[Almost] all political parties called for applying a unified list system … to guarantee equal opportunity … especially for the newly-established parties that cannot compete with other organized ones," ElBaradei said. The National Reconciliation Committee sponsored by SCAF and run by former deputy prime minister Yehia El-Gamal recommended the same electoral system, he added. "However, a new law was passed that went against what was agreed upon and against the recommendations of the committee." All parties should be represented in the coming parliament as it will be the one to elect the constituent assembly that will draft the new constitution, he added. He also called for allowing international monitoring of the elections to avoid any possibility of vote-rigging. Last month, SCAF said that any international monitoring of elections is not welcome, describing it as a violation of Egyptian sovereignty. ElBaradei described Egypt as moving backwards, compared to other countries that will draft the constitution ahead of parliamentary polls, possibly referring to Tunisia. He called for setting up guidelines for selecting the committee that will write the constitution in order to surpass the current state of "constitutional arbitrariness." He also slammed the prosecution of civilians before military courts. "The revolution did not break out to punish protesters," he said. The SCAF must realize that such situations must be resolved politically not with security measures, he said. Commenting on the trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, ElBaradei said he only watched one minute of the first televised hearing on Aug. 3, stressing that Egypt's uprising did not seek "revenge" but "renaissance." He further questioned the effectiveness of holding weekly million-man marches at this stage, describing such moves as a "waste of time." He said that Egyptians need to focus more on dialogue, slamming the statements regarding Egypt's identity and applying the Sharia, since it is already implemented. "It is as if we are living in the Middle Ages," he said.
