Hala Shukrallah succeeds ElBaradei as head of Constitution Party

Read Ahram Online's interview with Hala Shukrallah here.

Hala Shukrallah won the liberal Constitution Party's elections on Friday to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei as the party's president.

Shukrallah won 108 out of 189 votes to become the first woman and Copt to head an Egyptian political party.

Hala Shukrallah was born in 1954. She is the director of the Development Support Center for consultancy and training, a consultancy firm providing support and assistance to civil society organizations.

Shukrallah's opponents, former TV host Gamila Ismail and physician Hossam Abdel-Ghafar - both also founding members - won 57 and 23 votes respectively. Two votes were spoilt.

ElBaradei resigned as party head when he was appointed vice president following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi on 3 July. He resigned this post to register his objection to the violent dispersal of the pro-Morsi Rabaa Al-Adawiya protest camp which left hundreds dead.

ElBaradei posted on Twitter on Friday, encouraging the youth and calling on them to stay united against "ignorance, extremism and oppression.”

Party member Sayed Kassem has been acting as interim head since July.

The party has seen public divisions and mass resignations since its founding head resigned.

Many members resigned as the party came under fire for El-Baradei's opposition to the violent dispersal of Rabaa. 

Another major dispute was over the appointment, rather than election, of the party's current senior leaders.

The party attracted support of a number of young revolutionaries when it was founded by ElBaradei in 2011 after the revolution.