THE banned Muslim Brotherhood yesterday named Mohamed Badie, a conservative figure, as its new leader in a move hoped by group members and analysts to be replicated by other high-profile officials in Egypt. Badie, a veterinary professor at Beni Sueif University in southern Egypt, was "chosen by consensus by members of the Consultative Council," his predecessor Mohamed Akef told a press conference in Cairo. The Brotherhood, which is officially banned, controls a fifth of seats in the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Egyptian Parliament) after it fielded candidates as ‘independents' in the 2005 parlliament elections. The group has affiliates in other Muslim countries, some of which are officially recognised by the state. Egypt's Brotherhood Supreme Guide is in theory the movement's chief on the international front. "I hope that the group will adhere more to its principle of unity and continue its struggle against arrogance and distortion of its claims," Akef said. He added that the Brotherhood believed in "gradual reform through peaceful ways". The choice of Badie, the eighth supreme guide since the group was founded in 1928, signals a return to a less high-profile public role than in the last poll when the Brotherhood fielded 160 candidates, analysts say. "I do thank our outgoing guide Akef for setting an example for all leaders and governments to follow when he resigned from his post despite the fact that he was asked to stay," Badie told reporters. Born in 1943 in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla el-Kubra, Badie was jailed for nine years in the 1960s after being accused of membership of a Brotherhood military cell that allegedly planned the overthrow of the government. He was later responsible for ideological education within the group. Badie's election came after a bitter dispute between conservatives in the group, who place emphasis on strengthening the organisation and ideological outreach, and reformists, who advocate a more active and moderate public role in the society. Akef resigned last year before the end of his term in office in protest, after conservative members of the Brotherhood politburo opposed a promotion for Essam Erian, who is associated with the group's reformist wing. The conservative wing has consolidated its control in subsequent politburo elections, in which the group's deputy chief Mohamed Habib and reformist leader Abdel Moneim Abul Futouh lost their seats. Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the new leadership team could have repercussions on the group because of the internal rift it had incited. "Their participation in the forthcoming elections could be affected," Rashwan told The Gazette by phone. According to Rashwan, a campaign of arrests by police was also likely to encourage a shift away from public life. The group is expected to field fewer candidates in Egypt's poll later this year, especially after the Government amended the elections law, making it harder for opposition groups.
