CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood, believed to be the most powerful and most organised group in Egypt, has welcomed co-ordination with other political powers and parties, according to senior officials in the group. “The group and its political party, Freedom and Justice, are stretching hands to all the political powers, especially parties with an honourable national history such as Al-Wafd to build up a social consensus to get Egypt out of its current crisis and complete the achievements of the January 25 revolution,” Mohamed Badei, the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, said in a statement. The statement, issued after a visit late on Saturday by Al-Wafd chairman, el-Sayed el-Badawi, to the group's recently opened headquarters on the outskirts of Cairo, said that the list-based candidacy for the new Parliament would reflect “the value of social consensus and it would halt those who might try to tamper with the gains of the Egyptian people”. It quoted el-Badawi as saying that Al-Wafd agreed with the Brotherhood that “the current stage required a wide social consensus among the influential parties and political powers in Egypt”. Al-Wafd is Egypt's oldest liberal party. Chairman of Al-Wafd said that no “party”could rule the country “alone”. The Muslim Brotherhood, created in 1928, has said it will contest up to 50 per cent of the parliamentary seats in elections scheduled for next September.
