[The Eagle]

“Run, ElBaradei, Run!”











Hundreds of people gathered at Cairo International Airport on February 19 to greet Mohammed ElBaradei, the former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), perceived by many to be a potential candidate for the 2011 presidential elections.

ElBaradei is returned to his homeland after more than 20 years working with the IAEA. In 1997, he was first named director general of the agency, serving three terms before leaving the post in November 2009.

Supporters welcomed ElBaradei at the airport by displaying pins with the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s face and banners endorsing an ElBaradei run for the presidency. Among the diverse crowd at the airport were members of the April 6 Youth Movement, veteran journalist and media personality Hamdy Qandeel, popular socio-political analyst Hassan Nafaa, and actor Khaled Aboul Naga.

Gamila Ismail, former wife of Ayman Nour, also turned up, declaring she would be willing to share her advice and experience with him. Nour, founder of El Ghad party, failed in his bid for the presidency in the 2005 elections and is already campaigning in anticipation of his own 2011 run.

State media coverage of the welcome party was expectedly low-key, but elsewhere, such as in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm and opposition paper El-Dostor, the event was covered extensively. News website Al-Youm Al-Saba’ published a photo essay of ElBaradei’s homecoming from Vienna to Cairo, right up until he arrived at his house in Granna Farm on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road with supporters running after his car.

The ElBaradei bandwagon kicked off when he hinted at a possible presidential run during a November 2009 CNN interview, where he responded to a question about a possible challenge with the words “Never say never.”
However, ElBaradei has never declared an actual presidential campaign and repeatedly told the press that he would only consider running were a fair, democratic system in place. While his statements have generated public support for the outsider with international prestige, critics from both the government and opposition groups claim that ElBaradei has relatively little political experience and does not understand the reality in Egypt.



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Eagle