CAIRO - Egypt's largest-but-banned opposition group is not yet ready to take power in the country, a prominent supporter of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said in a newspaper interview Saturday ahead of parliamentary elections in November. "I think it's not time yet for Islamists to be in power," Muntasser al-Zayat, a Muslim Brotherhood activist and lawyer, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. "Of course, the Brotherhood is the most experienced Islamist group to play a role in Egypt's political life ... but I think it is a blessing from God that no Islamist faction reached power in Egypt," he added, referring to previous election efforts by the group. He told the paper that opponents of the Brotherhood were seeking to watch it fail and the Islamists needed to be in a better position before seeking power. The Brotherhood is technically banned in the country, but has members in parliament who ran as independents. These undeclared legislators in 2005 captured 88 seats in the People's Assembly, or the lower house, but they failed to win any seats in the June's elections of the Shura council, or higher house of parliament. Some members have called for a boycott of the November elections, saying the odds were stacked against them by the Government, and in doing so would deprive President Hosny Mubarak and his National Democratic Party (NDP) of legitimacy. Earlier this week, speaker of the Shura Council Safwat El-Sherif said the ruling NDP decided to nominate Mubarak, aged 82, for a sixth term in office. The president is the longest ruler of Egypt since Mohamed Ali, the founder of the country's last monarchical dynasty, who died in 1849. Egypt's next presidential election is scheduled for 2011. Mubarak has not yet accepted the nomination. He has also named no successor and has no vice president, making the question of who will rule Egypt next a common topic in the media and among citizens. Rumours persist that he is grooming the head of the NDP, his son Gamal Mubarak, aged 47, to take over, though the party and Mubarak have denied the reports.
