Muslim Brotherhood lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud challenged the exclusion of the group’s candidate for the presidency, Khairat al-Shater, on Monday.
Shater was excluded on the basis that he did not receive a rehabilitation order, which would qualify Shater to run after having been convicted by a military court. Shater claims he was excluded for political reasons.
Mokhtar al-Ashry, chairman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party’s Legal Committee, said the Presidential Elections Commission based its decision on the general law and not the special laws on rehabilitation for military tribunal cases. “We will need to talk to the commission about that,” he said.
“They should not be a tool to slaughter me like Mubarak tried to do,” he told a rally of 50,000 attendees in Shibin al-Kom, Monufiya on Sunday, alluding to the military junta.
“They want to prevent us from leading and from achieving the aspirations of the ordinary people,” he added. “That is why the Brotherhood changed its mind and decided to field a candidate in the presidential election.”
He also accused the military council and Kamal al-Ganzouri’s government of failing to fulfill the objectives of the revolution.
Mohamed Ali Bishr, member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, said it is time the country tried Islamic rule. “We have tried capitalism and socialism, but it did not work,” he said, rejecting accusations that the Brotherhood exercises the same policies of the dissolved National Democratic Party in monopolizing power.
The group decided to postpone Shater’s visit to Kafr al-Sheikh on Friday to call for a million-strong demonstration under the title of “Uniting the Nation” and a rally on Tuesday in Shubra.
Meanwhile, the Freedom and Justice Party launched a campaign on Facebook to promote its second candidate, Mohamed Morsy, but only 28 subscribers have so far joined, unlike Shater’s campaign, which attracted thousands within hours of its launch.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
