The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposition group on Wednesday announced that it had raised more than half a million signatures in support of would-be presidential contender Mohamed ElBaradei's campaign for political change, behind which the MB--as Egypt's largest, if unlicensed, opposition movement--has thrown its support. Spokesmen for the group also declared that such a large number of signatures, gathered in only 40 days since the campaign's inception on the Internet, was an indication of "positive interaction among the citizenry." MB leader Ahmed Badie called on all Egyptians to participate in the campaign so as to create a public groundswell in demand of political reform. Meanwhile, ElBaradei's National Association for Change (NAC) said it had managed to collect 98,000 signatures to date. The NAC hopes to collect one million signatures by the end of October, some two months before upcoming parliamentary elections. The NAC and its supporters demand the termination of Egypt's longstanding state of emergency; empowerment of the judiciary to supervise the electoral process; empowerment of civil society organizations to likewise supervise elections; and provision of equal time on state media to all electoral candidates, especially those running in presidential races. The NAC also calls for allowing Egyptian expatriates to exercise their right to vote in Egyptian elections and for allowing independent candidates the right to stand in presidential elections without arbitrary restrictions. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
