The chairman of the liberal Free Egyptians Party has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of trying to use the same policies of the former ruling National Democratic Party to dominate the country’s political landscape.
Ahmed Saeed said in a statement that the Brotherhood’s decision to nominate its deputy supreme guide, Khairat al-Shater, for president, did not come as surprise.
“The group’s earlier stances had exposed its intention to replace the dissolved National Democratic Party in all decision-making spots,” he said.
Saeed said he is astonished at the Brotherhood’s claim that it made the decision to fulfill the goals of the 25 January revolution, arguing that the “uprising was not meant to establish a single-party dictatorship or to exclude civil forces and the youth, who had sacrificed hundreds of martyrs.”
“Whose orders will Shater follow if he is elected? Those of the people or of the group?” Saeed said in the statement, commenting on Shater’s remarks, in which the Brotherhood leader said that he accepted the nomination in obedience to the Brotherhood’s decision.
Saeed warned that the controversy around the presidential election should not distract Egyptians’ from the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly, which, he said, is preparing to draft the new constitution after excluding secular groups, constitutional experts and revolutionary youths.
The party leader stressed that liberal groups will not allow any political force to change Egypt’s civilian identity.
