No Change In Election Law, Cairo Says Change

No Change In Election Law, Cairo Says Change

The national election laws in Egypt are adequate to govern presidential elections slated for 2011, officials with the ruling party said.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suggested he would challenge President Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 race if the election system were free and fair.

Mubarak during a visit to Germany last week said Cairo does “not have any restrictions” to ElBaradei running for president.

ElBaradei, however, would need to join a political party to compete or get signatures from 250 members of the Egyptian Parliament to run as an independent. The Parliament is controlled by Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party.

NDP spokesman Ali Helal said he welcomed ElBaradei’s candidacy but said the former IAEA chief needs to play by the rules, the Muslim Brotherhood’s English-language news Web site Ikhwanweb reports.

“The amendments introduced in 2005 and 2007 are sufficient and have satisfied the demands of the public,” he added. “All the talk about the regime not respecting political life is no longer acceptable.”

Helal went on to say the people of Egypt needed a national leader, not a sloganeer.

“Politics isn’t about shouting slogans or formulating impractical theories,” he said.

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