President Mohamed Morsy will not attend the first general conference of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party next Friday, which will see the election of the party’s new chairman, the Turkish Anadolu News Agency said on Wednesday.
Presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali told the agency in an exclusive statement that the president will not attend the event, but did not say why.
Morsy left his post as party chairman after winning the presidential race in June.
FJP acting chairman Essam al-Erian and the former speaker of the dissolved People’s Assembly, Saad al-Katatny, are both frontrunners in the election.
Katatny had said in earlier press statements that Morsy may attend the elections.
The party sent an official invitation to Morsy last week to attend the electoral conference, but Ali told the agency that the president will perform the Friday prayer in Marsa Matrouh province, west of Cairo, where he will hold a rally.
