The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) on Thursday released a list of the candidates it plans to field for June elections for Egypt’s Shura Council, the upper, consultative chamber of parliament. But the group’s election platform, along with which Cairo constituencies it plans to contest, has yet to be revealed, although both are expected to be announced imminently.
On Thursday, MB spokesman Mohamed Morsi announced the names of 14 of the group’s Shura candidates, three of which are already sitting MPs–contrary to expectations based on previous statements by the group.
Essam el-Erian, recently-arrested MB spokesman and member of the group’s authoritative Guidance Bureau, had previously said that all the group’s Shura candidates would be members of parliament. By employing this strategy, the group had hoped to take advantage of its MPs’ parliamentary immunity to shield nominees from arrest, particularly in light of an ongoing government crackdown on the MB leadership.
“The brotherhood chose to field sitting MPs because they enjoy parliamentary immunity,” el-Erian said. “Therefore, they can move freely, without any security justifications to ban them.”
In February, a Cairo criminal court ordered the release of 16 senior MB members that had been detained on charges of organizing “training camps” from which to stage attacks in Egypt. The group staunchly denied the claims, reiterating that, while it does desire the establishment of an Islamic state, it hopes to achieve this through peaceful means. The arrests, say MB leaders, were meant to paralyze the group and hinder its ability to compete in elections.
El-Erian and Mahmoud Ezzat, two of the MB’s electoral strategists, were among those detained. Khairat el-Shater, one of the group’s deepest pockets and most influential figures after the the Supreme Guide, remains behind bars. Meanwhile, brotherhood students who have taken part in anti-government protests have been barred from sitting for final exams, while senior group members–including professors and doctors–are being arrested in large numbers across Egypt, according to the MB’s daily bulletin on Wednesday.
The ongoing crackdown follows Guidance Bureau elections in December that had been marred by bitter disputes between top MB members, some of whom left the group as a result.
In short, the brotherhood–which represents Egypt’s largest opposition movement and enjoys massive grass-roots support–now finds itself in a tight spot.
In the same Wednesday bulletin, the MB declared that its participation in politics in general–and in next month’s Shura elections in particular–was meant to pose “a challenge to a regime that oppresses freedom,” not merely to defeat rival parties. This suggests that the group may have given up on trying to win as many parliamentary seats as it did in 2005, when it secured 88 seats–roughly one fifth–of the national assembly.
Despite its insistence on contesting the Shura elections, the brotherhood’s position vis-a-vis the government has been recently marked by a degree of ambiguity. While it frequently condemns the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) on its official website, in press statements and during protests, recent comments by Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie suggest that the brotherhood may be seeking a truce with the regime.
In a recent television interview, Badie surprised many–including MB members–when he beseeched President Hosni Mubarak “to look upon the brotherhood members in jail as his own sons,” adding that the president was “like a father” to them. In March, when Mubarak was in Germany to undergo surgery, Badie said that the brotherhood had “prayed for his health” and wished him a speedy recovery.
Badie’s statements came amid rumors that the MB was holding secret, pre-election talks with the ruling party.
Meanwhile, the group’s position on Mohamed ElBaradei–rival to the regime and possible presidential contender–remains unclear. Leading members say they still didn’t know whether they would back ElBaradei if the latter decided to run for the highest office, but that they nevertheless “support his demands” for constitutional reform.
Morsi, in statements to Al-Masry Al-Youm, denied any “ambiguity” in terms of the MB’s position towards the government. “They say that Badie is sucking up to the ruling regime. But we didn’t do anything wrong,” Morsi said. “Badie’s statements don’t mean that we support the NDP or its political agenda.”
“As for talk about secret agreements, this is ridiculous,” he added. “When our brothers were released ahead of elections, people accused us of having cut a deal. But it was their right to be released–it was the judiciary that decided to release them, not the regime.”
Meanwhile, group leaders have announced that they would revert to their traditional slogan–“Islam is the solution”–for the upcoming elections. In 2005, the group ran under the slogan “Reform is the solution,” echoing NDP slogans that likewise relied heavily on promises of “reform.”
Among the names announced by the MB for Shura candidacy, seven are running for workers’ seats and seven as “professionals.” So far, the constituencies that the group has chosen to contest are all outside of Cairo, the biggest being Giza, Monoufiya and Helwan.
