Israel Matzav

Oops... ElBaradei not prime minister

Egyptian President Adly Mansour has 'unappointed' Mohammed ElBaradei as his country's Prime Minister due to protests from Salafists.

But underscoring the sharp divisions facing the untested leader, Adly Mansour, his office said pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei had been named as interim prime minister but later backtracked on the decision saying consultations were continuing. A politician close to ElBaradei said the reversal was due to objections by an ultraconservative Islamist party with which the new administration wants to cooperate.
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Mansour, 67, the former chief justice of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court who was installed by the military as an interim leader, is little-known in international circles and the choice of ElBaradei would have given his administration a prominent global face to make its case to Washington and other Western allies trying to reassess policies.

But news of ElBaradei's appointment, which was reported by the state news agency MENA and others, proved divisive.

The 71-year-old Nobel laureate was an inspiring figure to the youth groups behind the 2011 revolution that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak as well as the uprising against Morsi. His appointment as prime minister would cement Mansour's support among the young anti-Morsi protesters.

But a senior opposition official close to ElBaradei, Munir Fakhry Abdelnur, told The Associated Press that the last minute reversal was because the ultraconservative Salafi el-Nour party was opposed.

Mansour's spokesman Ahmed el-Musalamani denied that the appointment of the former U.N. nuclear negotiator was ever certain. However, reporters gathered at the presidential palace ahead of his news conference were told earlier that the president would arrive shortly to announce it.

The dispute over ElBaradei underlines the fragmentation of Egypt's politics as the country continues to be roiled by bout after bout of unrest and violence since Mubarak's ouster.

The 2011 uprising opened the way for the political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was long suppressed by Mubarak's Western-backed regime, and Morsi was elected last year by a narrow margin. The fundamentalist movement swiftly rejected ElBaradei's appointment.

What are the odds of Egypt coming out of this as a representative democracy? I'd say slim. Very slim.

Labels: Adly Mansour, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian Revolution, Mohamed ElBaradei, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:03 PM