ElBaradei holds meeting to discuss elections, future of Constitution Party

A number of political parties are set to join the Constitution Party to form an alliance in the upcoming parliamentary elections, said on Wednesday Mohamed ElBaradei, the party’s co-founder.

Various political figures met on Tuesday night at party headquarters in downtown Cairo. ElBaradei addressed the attendees, saying that the Constitution Party did not intend to compete with the other political parties present, but rather to unite them as one force.

ElBaradei also called on the party’s youth to remain unified and keep working until the revolution is back on the right track, said Hossam Eissa, a Constitution Party founder.

Eissa added that Baradei announced to the meeting that the Indian ambassador to Egypt has offered to send a delegation from the Indian Congress Party—one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world, and briefly presided over by Mahatma Gandhi—to train the Constitution Party’s youth members.

ElBaradei also called on party members to acknowledge failures in the management of the party, and encouraged them to work towards having greater relevance in the political sphere. All members should be role models demonstrating the party’s ideology of social justice, Eissa continued.

The struggle now is not in Tahrir Square, Baradei added, but rather in the political arena. The party should reach all segments of society, he stressed.

Eissa said that ElBaradei’s attendance at the meeting came as a surprise, since it was held two days after his return from Germany where he received surgery on his leg.