Ruling party's Ahmed Ezz’s Al-Ahram article was an attempt to deflect charges of election-rigging, Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders said.
National Democratic Party (NDP) leading member Ezz attacked the MB in the state-run newspaper Friday.
MB leaders told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Ezz’s article reveals NDP panic ahead of its annual conference, which has led the party to twist facts.
The leaders accused the NDP of “forging the will of Egyptians through the people’s assembly elections in order to have complete control over parliament and exclude the Brotherhood and the opposition from parliamentary work in the upcoming period.”
MB official spokesperson and member of its guidance bureau Essam al-Eryan described Ezz’s analysis of parliamentary elections as an attempt to wash his hands of his crime of rigging the elections.
Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, al-Eryan asserted that Ezz is certain through constant charges against him that he is behind the flagrant fraud that marred the people’s assembly elections. This, al-Eryan said, is why he is trying to deflect the charges by presenting illogical and factually suspect analysis. In addition, Ezz is trying to exonerate himself and his men who participated in changing voters’ will in favor of “Ezz’s representatives” in parliament.
Responding to Ezz’s statements to the effect that the MB’s ability to secure 88 seats in the 2005 elections represented an inflation of their real support base, al-Eryan pointed out that the 2005 elections took place under complete judicial supervision and were therefore fair. The elections also demonstrated the MB’s real power, added al-Eryan, who stressed that the 2010 elections were fraudulent.
In response to Ezz’s description of Brotherhood MPs as procrastinators rather than an real opposition, al-Eryan pointed out that members of the MB parliamentary bloc had presented a serious challenge to the government by combating corruption. The absence of MB representatives from the 2010 parliament will be sorely felt as the new parliament discusses new laws, he says.
Al-Eryan added that Ezz attacked the Brotherhood because it is the only real political force to challenge the ruling party and its corruption. The NDP had indicated that it does not want MB representatives in parliament, and it accomplished what it set out to do.
MB guidance bureau member and head of the former MB parliamentary bloc Mohammed Saad al-Katatni argued that Ezz’s arguments reflect the deep state of panic within the NDP, especially coming hours before its annual congress. Facing an increasing number of fraud charges, the NDP is naturally trying to justify itself, adds al-Katatni.
The NDP refers to numbers and statistics that do not reflect Egyptians’ miserable existence, argues al-Katatni, and twisting facts is a form of fraud.
MB guidance bureau member and former MP Saad al-Husseini said that “no one believes what Ahmed Ezz says” because the electoral fraud is clear in documents, photographs and court rulings.
Al-Husseini pointed out that Brotherhood MPs and others contributed to making the last session the richest session in Egypt’s parliamentary history.
To Ezz’s charge that Brotherhood MPs are procrastinators, al-Husseini responded that this is a well-known characteristic of the ruling party itself. The ruling party knows that the MB works for the national interest and it rigged elections to exclude conscientious voices.
Finally, al-Husseini pointed out that both parliamentary records and media accounts demonstrate huge differences between the performance of Brotherhood MPs and NDP MPs.
