The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood remains determined to contest the mid-term Shura Council elections, reports Gamal Essam El-Din The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said on Saturday it intends to field up to 20 candidates in the Shura Council elections scheduled for June. In announcing the decision, the group's deputy supreme guide, Mohamed Habib, said it was in line with the Brotherhood's policy of participating in, rather than boycotting, political life in an attempt to build popular support for political reform. The group would, said Habib, be campaigning under its usual slogan "Islam is the solution" despite the recent constitutional amendment banning political parties based on religion. "Our slogan is in harmony with article two of the constitution which makes Islamic law the major source of legislation," said Habib. Interior Ministry officials, however, warned this week they would not allow religious slogans to be raised in the elections. Leading Brotherhood member, Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futouh, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the majority of the group's candidates will be running in Nile Delta governorates and in Alexandria. "We hope the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the government will see the Brotherhood's decision not as a sign of defiance, but as the expression of a sincere wish to compete in fair elections," he said. Abul-Futouh expects that security forces will attempt to discourage Brotherhood candidates from registering for the Shura elections. "They have done so in the past, but even so we would hope they will come to the conclusion that the policy of crackdowns has consistently failed to discourage the Brothers from contesting general elections." The individual candidacy system in force for the Shura elections will make it relatively simple for Brotherhood candidates to run as independents. According to the latest amendment of article 76, independents aiming to run in presidential elections require the support of at least 25 members of the Shura Council and 65 members of the People's Assembly. The Brotherhood currently controls 88 of the Assembly's 454 seats, but does not appear determined to win 25 places in the upper chamber. The Brotherhood also plans to contest the municipal elections set for April 2008. The group's decision to compete, insists Abul-Futouh, is motivated less by a long- term strategy aimed at contesting presidential elections than the "sheer necessity of remaining active in political life". Meanwhile, the four-month-old crackdown on the group continues. Police arrested 14 Brotherhood students from the Agricultural Cooperative Institute in the northern Cairo suburb of Shubra El-Kheima on charges of planning a military-style, bringing the number of Brotherhood members arrested this week to more than 30. On Sunday the NDP closed its own six-day nomination period for candidates. Some 773 party members have registered as possible candidates, including businessmen, former MPs and government officials. Topping the list of NDP hopefuls is Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fawzi. Fawzi, currently a Shura Council member, plans to run in Suez city. The list also includes Hani Seif El-Nasr, Secretary-General of the Social Fund for Development, who is seeking to run in the governorate of Fayoum and Samir Zaher, chairman of the Egyptian Football Union, running in the Nile delta governorate of Damietta. Businessmen hopefuls include car importer, Mohamed Farag El-Rawass in the Cairo south district of Al-Sayeda Zeinab and Mohamed El-Massoud in the Downtown Cairo district of Boulaq. The list also includes some Coptic Christians in Upper Egypt and a woman candidate, Satoutta Mohamed Hassan, in Alexandria. It is now up to the NDP's electoral colleges to select 88 candidates from among the 773 hopefuls. Zakaria Azmi, President Hosni Mubarak's chief of staff and NDP assistant secretary- general, will be in charge of supervising the selection process. The successful candidates are expected to be endorsed by the NDP's secretariat general at the end of next week. The mid-term Shura Council elections will be held in 68 out of total of 88 constituencies. Shura Council constituencies are on the average three times larger than those of the People's Assembly, making running in the election an expensive prospect. The Arab Nasserist party has no plans to field candidates in Shura elections while the leftist Tagammu party says very few of its members have shown any interest in competing for seats. The liberal-oriented Wafd party has announced that any decision on Shura elections will be left to the party's higher council. Al-Wafd has boycotted Shura elections since their inception in 1980. On Thursday, the Shura Council approved a controversial bill aimed at establishing a Supreme Military Appeal Court (SMAC). Before adjourning on 24 April, the Council is scheduled to discuss new amendments to the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights, establishing a committee that will monitor parliamentary elections.
