CAIRO: For the first time in the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group held public elections for three positions in its Guidance Office today. The new members will replace former council heads Mohamed Morsi, Saad Katatni and Essam el-Erian, who are now working with the Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party. The special election was held in the presence of media in a large hotel in Cairo. Nine leaders of the party and Guidance Office excused themselves from attending for various reasons. Mohamed Badie, Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, said public elections for the Guidance Office are in line with statements of former Supreme Guide Mehdi Akeff. Akeff once said that whenever the group was given the freedom to do so it would hold its elections in one of Egypt's biggest hotels and will invite all the international media to cover the event. Badie also said around 1,000 women are among the founders of the Freedom and Justice Party, the largest number of women ever to be part of the founding of such a political party. Badie said the Brotherhood has all respect and love for Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, adding that the group's Guidance Office voted unanimously to appoint Coptic Christian Rafik Habib as vice-president of the Freedom and Justice Party. He added that the meeting, the sixth Guidance Office meeting, was one of the “blessed fruits” of Egypt's January 25 Revolution. He added that it will allow the world to witness and monitor the Brotherhood's work, and that their elections will be public, transparent and free from forgery. Dr. Mohamed Hussein, Secretary-General of the Brotherhood, said members must choose between being in the Guidance Office or working in the party. This comes at a time when Brotherhood youth are requesting that one of them be allowed to sit on the Guidance Council. This has been postponed until the development project headed by Khairat el-Shater is complete. Full elections for the Guidence Office are expected to take place between January-June 2012.