• 23:16
  • Tuesday ,22 June 2010
العربية

Baradei pushes for poll boycott

By-Tamer Mohamed-EG

Home News

00:06

Tuesday ,22 June 2010

Baradei pushes for poll boycott

 Mohamed ElBaradei, the former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, has criticised opposition powers, which have chosen to participate in Egypt's parliamentary and presidential elections.

 

During a visit to the opposition Democratic Front Party Sunday evening, ElBaradei, who is spearheading a high-profile campaign in Egypt, criticized Al Wafd Party and the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned-yet-influential opposition power, for deciding to stand for legislative and presidential elections due next October and in September 2011 respectively, though they failed to gain a single east in the Upper House of the Parliament's polls earlier this month.

  "All national powers should reach a unified decision to boycott elections," added ElBaradei during the two-hour meeting. The Democratic Front Party has already declared boycotting the nation's different elections for an alleged lack of guarantees for honest and fair polls.

   ElBaradei has said he is considering running for president but only if he got guarantees that they would be fair. He is pushing for constitutional reforms in Egypt and has called for Egyptians to sign a petition for sweeping changes.