The Salafi Nour Party would never form a coalition with the Freedom and Justice Party or the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Monday Yasser Borhamy, the vice chairman of the Salafi Dawah in Alexandria.
Jama'a al-Islamiya and its political arm the Construction and Development Party also said that they wouldn’t ally with the FJP in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Other Salafi parties, including Fadila and Asala, are expected to join different coalitions alongside the Wasat, Hadara, Ghad al-Thawra, Strong Egypt, Reformation and Renaissance and Egyptian Current parties.
Some Nour Party dissidents, led by former party head Emad Abdel Ghafour — current chair of the Al-Watan Party — will run the elections as part of a coalition with Hazem Salah Abu Ismail’s Umma Party.
Borhamy also that the mandatory representation of women in Parliament violates Sharia and the Constitution.
“Allocating quotas for women and Copts simply because of their gender or religion is blatant discrimination,” he posted on the Nour Party’s official website.
The Shura Council agreed on Saturday to the Nour Party’s request to cancel the clause of the draft election law that stipulates names of female candidates appear at the top part of the electoral lists.
Assistant Justice Minister Omar al-Sherif responded by saying that the quota is a “positive” form of discrimination.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
