Reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei gives up the race for Egyptian presidency

The 69-year-old Nobel laureate, seen as a driving force behind the movement that forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down, said in a statement that the conditions for a fair presidential election are not in place.

ElBaradei said the military rulers who took over from Mubarak have governed “as if no revolution took place and no regime has fallen”.

His decision to pull out of the race just days before the annual anniversary of the 25 January uprising reflects the dilemma in which Egypt’s revolutionary movement finds itself - caught between a military that they say is trying to hold on to power, and a newly-elected parliament dominated by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood which revolutionaries fear will give the generals what they want.

The military rulers have said they will transfer power after presidential elections, to be held before the end of June. But many expect a fierce struggle over the military’s future privileges.

ElBaradei echoed fears that the military would not give up power to future rulers.

“I reviewed the best ways to serve the goals of the revolution in light of this reality, and I found none within the official framework, including [running for] the presidency,” he said.

“I had said from the start that my conscience will not allow me to run for president or any official position unless there is a real democratic framework, that upholds the essence of democracy and not only its form.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose associated political party looks poised to take more than 40 per cent of the seats in the next parliament, has also indicated that it might not field a candidate.

But the Brotherhood, by dominating parliament, is set to dominate the process by which a committee that will be entrusted with the writing of the country’s new constitution is picked - a situation that some liberals and youth groups fear will produce a bargain in which the army continues to control the executive power, but allows conservative Islamists to control the writing of the constitution.

ElBaradei had strongly advocated that the constitution be written prior to elections. Many revolutionaries say that the first free vote after decades of dictatorship is unlikely to yield a truly representative parliament, and advocated a constitutional committee made up of delegates of political parties, universities, labour unions, and other institutions.

ElBaradei admitted the protest movement was in dire straits, but blamed its current malaise on the military’s failure to respond to its demands. He urged the young to continue their peaceful protests.

“The youth are the ones who will rebuild this country ... They are the dream, the hope,” he said.

Many had criticised ElBaradei’s low profile in the street demonstrations since the 25 January revolution, saying that he failed to seize the momentum to act as the forceful leader of an uprising that began without one, but soon found that it needed a figure to unify and guide it.

His decision to stand down from elections, and thus - in the revolutionaries’ eyes - to not play the army’s game, may restore some of his standing.

Presidential hopeful Ayman Nour supported ElBaradei’s decision, saying it was a “positive shock” to the nation, and a new push for the revolutionary groups to demand more radical changes.

Many hope that his actions may force the military to rethink their position, as well as mobilise activists.

Activist and blogger Omar Elhady wrote on his Twitter account: “ElBaradei’s withdrawal proves he is a respectable and devoted man. I had stopped supporting him as president a while back. Now I see him as a national leader above official positions, and feared by presidents.”