Cairo: A leading Christian activist has been elected to steer the helm of Egypt’s major liberal Constitution Party, becoming the conservative country’s first woman to lead a political party.
Hala Shukrallah, a development expert, gained 108 out of the 203 votes at the first congress of the Constitution Party, which was established by Egyptian Nobel laureate Mohammad Al Baradei more than a year ago.
Hala’s closest rival, former TV host Jamila Esmail, got 58 votes in the elections held Friday in Cairo.
Educated in Canada and Britain, Hala, 60, is a major advocate of religious freedom. She has cofounded the non-governmental group, the Egyptian Association against Religious Discrimination.
In 2012, Hala and other politicians joined Al Baradei in setting up the Constitution to serve as a political platform for Egypt’s liberals against the then ruling Islamists.
Al Baradei quit the party last July when he was picked as Egypt’s vice-president following the army’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi. Few weeks later, Al Baradei, a former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, resigned in protest against security forces’ clampdown on pro-Mursi campers. Hundreds were killed in the crackdown. Al Baradei has since been living in Austria.
The Constitution members on Friday unanimously agreed to make Al Baradei the party’s honorary chief.
Christians account for around 10 per cent of Egypt’s mostly Muslim 86 million population. Egyptian Christians have long complained abut state bias and attacks by radical Islamists.
