Twenty current and former leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposition movement issued a statement this week calling on the group to boycott next month’s parliamentary elections, which they described as "farcical."
They argued that participation in the upcoming polls would represent a tacit recognition of the ruling National Democratic Party's traditional practice of fixing elections, which, they said, had been planned for well in advance.
The statement was signed by Ibrahim al-Zaafarani, member of the group’s Shura Council; al-Zaafarani's wife, Jehan al-Halafawy; Kamal al-Halabawy, former MB representative in Europe; Mokhtar Nuh, former group leader; and Abdel Hai al-Faramawy, a professor at Cairo's Al-Azhar University.
Saad al-Husseini, a member of the group's Guidance Bureau, for his part, said the issue would ultimately be decided by the MB administration.
“Boycotting elections is the wrong way to fight corruption,” he said. “We shouldn't leave the political arena wide open for the regime to corrupt in the absence of any genuine opposition.”
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
