Jama'a al-Islamiya will field around 150 candidates in the parliamentary elections scheduled for November, the group's media spokesperson, Tarek al-Zomor, said on Saturday. The final number will be announced when the group concludes its preparations for elections, Zomor told Al-Masry Al-Youm. He added that though the majority of candidates will be from Upper Egyptian governorates, where the group's clout mostly lies, it will field candidates in most of the country's governorates. "The final number of the group's candidates might stand at 135-140, based on possible coalitions wih other parties," said Nasr Abdel Salam, the temporary chairman of the group's political arm, the Construction and Development Party. Abdel Salam told the newspaper on Saturday that the group will nominate members from its former militant wing, saying that choices will be based on candidates' efficiency. On Monday, the Egyptian Court of Cassation refused to approve the Construction and Development Party as an official political party. The court said the party's platform is religion-based, which violates the Political Parties Law. The court's decision is to be referred within hours to the Administrative Court, which has the authority to annul the verdict. Jama'a al-Islamiya, the largest former jihadist movement in Egypt, engaged in armed confrontations with security services during the 1990s in an attempt to overthrow the regime and establish an Islamic state. However, its leaders announced several years ago that they had abandoned jihadist ideas and apologized for their attacks, which led to the deaths of hundreds of people. Translated from the Arabic Edition
