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| Five North Sinai parliamentary candidates withdraw following killing of Nour candidate | |
| 2015-10-26 | |
Pharmacist and Salafist Nour party's only North Sinai candidate, Mostafa Abdel-Rahman, was rubbed out by unknown assailants Saturday while leaving his home in North Sinai's El-Arish. El-Arish is allocated two individual seats in the parliament out of five seats for the North Sinai governorate. Emad El-Balk, Hamada Sinbil, Mohammed Hassanein, and Shehta El-Sayed also withdrew from the race following the killing, said Refai, but the exact reason for their withdrawal was not specified. Refai also said a meeting will be held to coordinate with other candidates who wish to withdraw in North Sinai. Nour party, the only Islamist group running for parliament, issued a statement Saturday calling upon officials to quickly investigate and to find the perpetrators. No group has yet grabbed credit for Abdel-Rahman's liquidation. Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest Sunni authority, issued a statement Saturday condemning the liquidation and saying Egyptians will not surrender to terrorism. "The Egyptian people will not bow to this cowardly terrorism that targets Egyptians with all their ideologies," the statement read. "The [Egyptian people's] will and determination is channeled towards the homeland's civilisation and towards rebuilding the state institutions, which will be completed with the parliament, and their will shall not be broken," the statement read. Elections for the second electoral stage for 13 governorates including North Sinai are scheduled to take place 22-23 November. The first stage took place 27-28 October and a run-off is due Tuesday and Wednesday. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 This assassination of a party member could have been carried out by a number of entities, but it may have been a shot across the bow to warn all the Sinai Islamists to look for work elsewhere. The Nour party was also the only Islamist group that supported Morsi's ouster and has generally supported the current government. Something to consider. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2015-10-26 14:17 |
| #1 The Nour party, which was the second strongest after the Muslim Brotherhood in first elections following the ouster of Mubarak, has suffered a terrific decline. In recent elections the ultra-conservatives were nearly shut-out. This assassination of a party member could have been carried out by a number of entities, but it may have been a shot across the bow to warn all the Sinai Islamists to look for work elsewhere. |
| Posted by: Beldar Phinese2093 2015-10-26 09:00 |