CAIRO - Egyptian political parties, seeking to keep former allies of deposed President Hosni Mubarak out of parliament, meet on Sunday to review concessions on election rules offered by the military. The ruling army council said it would amend a law banning parties from fielding candidates as independents, set a clearer timetable for a move to civilian rule and consider ending military trials for civilians. The army's concession comes a day before a deadline set by the parties, which has threatened to boycott the polls unless the army changes the election law to allow them to field candidates both on party lists and for seats allocated to individuals. Mubarak's former allies, many of them local notables with enduring clout in their areas, have been spurned by most parties, leaving them with few options to get re-elected to parliament apart from running as independents. "I believe the alliance (of parties) will accept these concessions," Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, told Reuters on Sunday. "Boycotting the elections was a threatening option to pressure the military council, not a serious one," he said. "Political parties are established to participate in elections, not to boycott them." "We won't stop before those who speak and criticise. Nothing stops us and we will carry Egypt to stability," said Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council, during a visit to the city of Fayoum. The parties and the military council agreed on Saturday to lay down non-binding guidelines for the new constitution, ending a dispute between liberals and Islamists over some of the document's principles. Liberal and leftist groups have been demanding guarantees that the new constitution will ensure a civil state, fearing that any future Islamic majority could push through the creation of a theocracy. Islamists argue that laying down such rules before the elected constituent assembly meets is undemocratic and against the popular will. "The meeting ended the debate over supra-constitutional principles and they will be announced once we agree on them," said Mohamed Morsi, head of Freedom and Justice, in a statement on the Brotherhood's official website, Ikhwan Online.
