Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei called on all Egyptians to reject the proposed constitutional amendments that will be put to a nationwide referendum on 19 March, 2011.
In a video posted on social networking site Twitter, ElBaradei said, "Any citizen has the right to refuse or accept the amendments, but we all need to know that agreeing to these amendments will result in several negative outcomes."
ElBaradei went on to say that the first outcome of a "Yes" vote on the amended constitution would be to "provide a parliament not representative of the people, composed mainly of members of the National Democratic Party and benefiting businessmen, the opportunity to uphold a Constitution which is also not representative of the people, and this will take us backwards to a great extent.”
ElBaradei added that drafting a new constitution "is the best solution to complete the success of the revolution, as it will not take more than three months."
He said that the period during which a new constitution is drafted will provide an opportunity "to form new parties composed of youth from the revolution so that the next parliament is balanced, and which will give the president limited authorities."
ElBaradei has already announced his intention to run in the upcoming presidential elections in Egypt.
Translated from the Arabic
