CAIRO: Kamal Helbawy, a now former Brotherhood leader resigned on air during an interview with a talk show on Saturday night in protest at the nomination of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate for the presidency, Khairat el-Shater, after the group had pledged not to field a presidential candidate following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. Helbawy has expressed extreme sadness in the confused performance of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and its pursuit of power, which “is no different from the former Mubarak`s ruling National Democratic Party” and questioned the dismissal of presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh from the group when he declared his intention to run for president. He downplayed reports that the differences between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military junta is the justification for the nomination of Shater, stressing that there are ongoing deals and “lack of transparency” and added “that if the military junta did not want Shater, it would not have lifted the ban on his candidacy,” and confirmed that there “is a state of lack of transparency and the insistence on fraudulence,” pointing to the group`s rejection to demand the amendment of Article 28 of the Constitutional declaration outlined by the ruling military junta, which gives impunity to the Higher Presidential Elections Committee, in case of appealing its decisions. He expressed hope that the Brotherhood would apologize for its recent decisions and statements and “stop the nefarious actions of the group.”
