The Salafi Jihad Movement announced that it's political arm, the Islamic Party, would run in the upcoming House of Representatives elections in alliance with Jama'a al-Islamiya, the Nation Party, Hazemon and the Salafi Front.
The alliance plans to meet on Tuesday to determine which candidates each movement would field for the joint electoral list.
Mohamed Abou Samra, the Islamic Party's secretary general, said the party would field 2 percent of the candidates on the alliance's list, or 29 candidates total. They would run for election in 10 governorates: Cairo, Alexandria, Sharqiya, Minya, Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, North Sinai and South Sinai.
The percentage is so low because most members of the movement are ineligible to run for election due to court rulings issued against them, Abou Samra told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
He stressed that the party is running on a platform of a strict enforcement of Sharia and the establishment of the "Islamic Caliphate."
Abou Samra rejected the opposition's call to boycott the elections, claiming that those who refuse to participate are writing their political death certificates.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
