Twenty-two MPs affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposition movement from eight different voting constituencies have decided not to run in 28 November parliamentary elections, according to leading MB member Saad al-Husseini.
“They arrived at the decision either for health reasons or in order to make way for younger group members,” al-Husseini said.
One of those to bow out, however, Osama Gadou, said he was thinking about contesting the poll as a non-MB-affiliated independent.
Some observers have interpreted Gadou’s statements as a sign of internecine squabbling within the group.
MB Shura Council member Gamal Heshmat, for his part, said the candidates had withdrawn from the races “of their own accord” and not by order of the group's authoritative Guidance Bureau.
Sources within the group’s "internal opposition front," however, say the men had decided not to run because they supported an electoral boycott based on widespread expectations of vote-rigging by the government.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
