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Egyptian Opposition Leader ElBaradei Returns to Cairo Following Protests

28 January 2011 00:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei will return to Cairo today following protests across the country and a mass rally in the capital on Jan. 25 inspired by the revolt that toppled Tunisiaâ€™s leader, APA reports quoting bloomberg.com website.
The former head of the United Nations nuclear agency and possible presidential candidate has called for President Hosni Mubarak to leave office. Speaking in Vienna today before departing, he said he was willing to lead Egypt through a transitional period if asked, Al Arabiya reported, without saying how it got the information.
Protests continued for a third day in cities including Suez and Ismailia, both east of Cairo, sending Egyptâ€™s benchmark EGX30 index tumbling by the most in more than two years. While the capital remained quiet, truckloads of riot police have been deployed in the center of the city since demonstrations on Jan. 25 in which four people were killed.
Protests have erupted in the past month in several Arab countries including Algeria, Morocco and Yemen, which all face high unemployment rates and rising living costs, factors which fueled the uprising that ousted Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14. Mubarak, in power since 1981, hasnâ€™t said whether he will run in presidential elections later this year and hasnâ€™t spoken publicly since the demonstrations began.
â€œPart of the reason Mubarak hasnâ€™t responded is because by responding to the protestors it gives them credence,â€ Hani Sabra, a Middle East analyst with the Eurasia Group, said in an interview. â€œHe doesnâ€™t want to look weak. Mubarak doesnâ€™t want to appear weak and embolden protestors.â€
Market Reaction
The EGX30 plunged 11 percent, the most since October 2008, to 5,646.50 at the 2:30 p.m. close in Cairo. That brought the two-day drop to 16 percent. The cost to insure against the countryâ€™s debt soared 38 basis points to 383, the highest since May 2009, according to CMA prices.
Egypt, home to Orascom Construction Industries, Talaat Moustafa Group Holding and Orascom Telecom, has the biggest stock market by market capitalization in North Africa.
The government will probably weather the current wave of protests, though a presidential election due later this year will ensure that political tensions persist, Fitch Ratings said today.
â€œEgyptâ€™s regime has been in place for several years and there have been protests in the past and the regime is used to dealing with them,â€ Richard Fox, Fitchâ€™s London-based head of Middle East and Africa Sovereign Ratings, said in a conference call today. Strong ties between the military and the ruling establishment are a â€œlinchpinâ€ of stability, he said.
Succession Questions
Mubarak, 82, has no vice president or designated successor. Opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, say the president is grooming his politician son, Gamal Mubarak, to succeed him, a claim both men deny.
ElBaradei, who helped set up the National Association for Change in 2010 to campaign for democracy and against corruption, said in February that heâ€™d run for president if the government removed constitutional restrictions on independent candidates.
Egypt, Algeria and Yemen all rank in the bottom half, well below 59th-placed Tunisia, in Berlin-based Transparency Internationalâ€™s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index of 180 nations. All Arab countries except Lebanon and Iraq are classified as authoritarian regimes in the Economist Intelligence Unitâ€™s 2010 Democracy Index.
ElBaradeiâ€™s National Association for Change and the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptâ€™s biggest opposition group, said they would both attend a mass rally tomorrow after Friday prayers in the mainly Muslim country.
â€œWeâ€™re going to join in tomorrowâ€™s protests because weâ€™re a part of this society,â€ Hamdy Hassan, a former parliamentarian and member of the Brotherhood, said by telephone from Alexandria. â€œWe wonâ€™t make up the majority of protestors, but our demands are aligned with those of the youth that are leading this movement.â€