ElBaradei returns to Egypt

2010-03-23 11:06

Cairo - Mohammed ElBaradei, who has campaigned for political reform in Egypt since leaving his post at the top of the UN nuclear agency, has quietly returned to Cairo.

A source at the Cairo airport on Monday said ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was received at the airport on Sunday evening only by family members.

ElBaradei had traveled to Austria and South Korea after a brief but eventful return to Egypt last month, when more than 1 000 supporters greeted his return to Cairo last month to call on him to run for president in the 2011 elections after he made a series of calls for changes to the Egyptian constitution and electoral system.

ElBaradei's arrival was also greeted by 158 opposition politicians' announcement that they would join the National Coalition for Change he formed during his last visit to the country.

The independent Cairo daily al-Masry al-Youm on Monday reported that the politicians had formed a "Group for National Work" to work toward the constitutional reforms ElBaradei has suggested.

Those reforms include the imposition of a two-term limit on the Egyptian presidency, judicial oversight of elections, and loosening restrictions on who may run for president.

Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, 81, has been in power for 29 years, and has vowed to continue serving until his "last breath".

Egyptian law currently requires presidential candidates to have been a member of a legal party's senior leadership for at least a year, or to secure the nomination of 250 local and national elected officials.

ElBaradei has held no senior position in a party. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has an overwhelming majority in Egypt's elected institutions, making it difficult for an independent to stand for the presidency without the NDP's blessing.

- SAPA