الرئيسية
By Reuters
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed
ElBaradei is prepared to drop his bid to be head of state if he is asked
to lead a transition government to steer the country to civilian rule,
his campaign team said on Saturday.
ElBaradei is offering himself
as an alternative to Kamal Ganzouri, a veteran politician named by the
country's ruling military council on Friday to head a new interim
government after a week of protests and violence that has killed 42
people.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf resigned last week as the clashes spread.
On
Saturday, Egyptians protesting against the appointment of 78-year-old
Ganzouri, who served as Prime Minister in the 1990s under ousted
President Hosni Mubarak, clashed with police firing tear gas in central
Cairo.
ElBaradai's announcement stepped up pressure on the
military council to drop its candidate for the top job and turn over
more powers to civilians.
ElBaradei himself is respected among
pro-democracy campaigners but many Egyptians view him as out of touch
because he spent much of his career outside the country, particularly
during his time at the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
The
flare-up of violence has cast another shadow over a parliamentary
election that begins on Monday and has been billed as the nation's first
free vote in decades.
ElBaradei's campaign team said he met with
revolutionary youth coalitions and political parties who had rejected
Ganzouri's appointment.
"The political forces and groups stressed
that the only way out of the crisis is to form a national coalition
government with full powers to manage the transitional period until
presidential elections are held," ElBaradei's team said in a statement.
It
said he would abandon his bid for the presidency if he were asked
formally to form a government, "so as to be completely neutral in the
interim period."
ElBaradei's office said earlier on Saturday that
he had been in touch with the military council to discuss "the demands
of the revolution," without reaching agreement. He also met with
political groups.
Two days of voting are due to begin on Monday
in the first stage of a complex, drawn-out election to parliament's
lower house that will be completed in January. Voting for the upper
house and the presidency will follow before the end of June.
Alarmed
by the violence in Cairo and other cities, the United States and the
European Union have urged a swift handover to civilian rule in a country
where prolonged political turmoil has compounded economic woes.
(Reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Patrick Werr and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed
ElBaradei is prepared to drop his bid to be head of state if he is asked
to lead a transition government to steer the country to civilian rule,
his campaign team said on Saturday.
ElBaradei is offering himself
as an alternative to Kamal Ganzouri, a veteran politician named by the
country's ruling military council on Friday to head a new interim
government after a week of protests and violence that has killed 42
people.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf resigned last week as the clashes spread.
On
Saturday, Egyptians protesting against the appointment of 78-year-old
Ganzouri, who served as Prime Minister in the 1990s under ousted
President Hosni Mubarak, clashed with police firing tear gas in central
Cairo.
ElBaradai's announcement stepped up pressure on the
military council to drop its candidate for the top job and turn over
more powers to civilians.
ElBaradei himself is respected among
pro-democracy campaigners but many Egyptians view him as out of touch
because he spent much of his career outside the country, particularly
during his time at the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
The
flare-up of violence has cast another shadow over a parliamentary
election that begins on Monday and has been billed as the nation's first
free vote in decades.
ElBaradei's campaign team said he met with
revolutionary youth coalitions and political parties who had rejected
Ganzouri's appointment.
"The political forces and groups stressed
that the only way out of the crisis is to form a national coalition
government with full powers to manage the transitional period until
presidential elections are held," ElBaradei's team said in a statement.
It
said he would abandon his bid for the presidency if he were asked
formally to form a government, "so as to be completely neutral in the
interim period."
ElBaradei's office said earlier on Saturday that
he had been in touch with the military council to discuss "the demands
of the revolution," without reaching agreement. He also met with
political groups.
Two days of voting are due to begin on Monday
in the first stage of a complex, drawn-out election to parliament's
lower house that will be completed in January. Voting for the upper
house and the presidency will follow before the end of June.
Alarmed
by the violence in Cairo and other cities, the United States and the
European Union have urged a swift handover to civilian rule in a country
where prolonged political turmoil has compounded economic woes.
(Reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Patrick Werr and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Andrew Heavens)