Mohamed ElBaradei attacked by mob; fails to cast vote

Cairo, Mar 21: While the situation in Egypt is slowly limping back to normal, the latest attack on Mohamed ElBaradei, Nobel laureate and star reformer who played catalyst in the ouster of Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has hampered the peace efforts in the country. The attack happened yesterday.

An angry mob attacked ElBaradei who held the reins of the reform movement in Egypt yesterday without any provocation. The country is taking the first steps towards democracy with elections being carried out on Saturday.

ElBaradei was attacked by a group of men who smashed his car windows and pelted stones at him. He was not injured in the attack but was forced to flee from the place. He had arrived to cast his vote in a referendum that seeks to adopt a package of constitutional amendments that would allow new parliamentary and presidential elections. The elections are planned to be held later this year or early next year. He could not cast his vote in the melee.

His supporters along with him are of the opinion that the changes need not be implemented immediately opining that it was too soon to carry out such reforms. There are also serious apprehensions that if an early voting is carried out, the radical group, the Muslim Brotherhood will get an unfair advantage taking into account the highly volatile situation.

While the Egyptian turmoil triggered a wave of protest across the Middle East the country was rooting for the ouster of the dictatorial administration of Mubarak and pave way for a more democratic way of governance. The first phase of voting enjoyed a good response, with officials saying that the polls received "unprecedented response". An estimated 45 million voters gathered to cast their vote for constitutional reforms and to go through elections in the next 6 months.

OneIndia News