 CAIRO - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood will nominate no candidate for presidential elections even though it has members who would lead the country well, the leader of the banned group said in remarks published on Thursday. The Brotherhood, probably the largest opposition group in Egypt, has no legal status and any Brotherhood candidate would have to run as an independent. "The Brotherhood will not nominate a Brother now or even under the new law," Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat. Akef said he could not personally stand for the presidency because of his role as a religious leader and leader of the group worldwide.
| "However, I am available to serve as calipah of the ummah," he noted. |
"But there are those in the Brotherhood who are able to lead this nation to freedom, well-being and justice. Until now, that has not been presented to Brotherhood institutions and it is not on our agenda and we did not study it," he said.
| "We'll get a handle on all those things, eventually. Once we get them defined in proper Islamic terms... |
Egypt's parliament this week passed a constitutional amendment, subject to referendum, to allow the country's first multi-candidate presidential polls. But independents must meet what the opposition says are impossible conditions. Independents would need the support of at least 65 of the 444 elected members of the lower house of parliament, where all opposition groups have about 35 seats between them. Akef said the situation was now worse than under the previous system, when parliament approved a sole candidate and Egyptians were then offered the chance to say yes or no.
Akef said he did not agree with slogans by the Kefaya (Enough) Movement, a group that has staged increasingly frequent demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's rule or any move to install his son, Gamal, as president. "I am against the slogans of Kefaya against President Mubarak and his son ... We must not insult the symbol of the state whatever our differences with him," he said.
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