In a Twitter message on Friday morning, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei called on protesters to continue their strike on the streets, following statements by President Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian Armed Forces pledging constitutional reforms.
“Entire nation is on the streets. Only way out is for regime to go. People power can't be crushed. We shall prevail. Still hope army can join,” he wrote at 1:35PM.
Minutes before his tweet, the Egyptian Armed Forces released a statement promising the implementation of reforms that Mubarak promised in his speech Thursday night, giving no indication that the incumbent president would leave his post. Mubarak had pledged to pass on his executive authorities to Vice President Omar Suleiman and ordered constitutional reforms pertaining to the presidential elections, but he did not resign.
ElBaradei has insisted that no political reforms can be made by the current regime.
His and other opposition leaders’ proposal for a democratic transition is based first on the end of Mubaraks’ government and the establishment of a coalition government that can draft a new constitution. “Free and fair elections should be held after a one-year transition period," he told Austrian paper Die Presse in an interview published Friday. By the time those elections are to take place, a new constitution would be drafted.
The army, according to ElBaradei is a main stakeholder in this process.
In an interview with CNN following Mubarak’s Thursday speech, ElBaradei called on the army to save the country from “going down the drain.” He added, "There is no way the Egyptian people right now are ready to accept either Mubarak or his vice president, and my fear right now is this will start violence."
ElBaradei returned to Egypt in 2010 after a long career with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, with a pledge to work towards democratic change in Egypt.
