“Magdy Ashour does not represent the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Parliament,” said Sobhi Saleh, former Assistant Secretary General of the MB parliamentary bloc. Ashour is the only MB member to have won a seat in the 2010 parliamentary elections.
Speaking on behalf of the Supreme Guide, Saleh proclaimed that ”the group’s institutions obliged the MB’s Supreme Guide to boycott the run-off polls and therefore obliged all MB members to do the same.”
“If Ashour remains in parliament, he will represent himself and not the MB,” he added.
Citing security restrictions on Ashour, Saleh asserted that the MB has not decided whether to expel Ashour from the party. “We are waiting for security restrictions to be raised so that he can make his final decision” on whether to remain a member of Parliament, he said.
“I was pressured by security forces to accept the rigging of elections in my favor, but I refused,” asserted Azab Mustafa, a former member of the MB parliamentary bloc.
He said that Ashour was one of the boycott’s proudest proponents but that security forces forcibly manufactured his victory in order to ensure the MB’s representation in Parliament and embarrass the group by invalidating its purported boycott.
Ashour’s family claimed Ashour had requested a couple of days to consider whether to resign from Parliament.
Ashour’s wife told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the family wants Ashour “to resign from Parliament in adherence to the boycott.”
“We do not want to anger the MB,” she added.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
