The Muslim Brotherhood has decided to contest Egypt’s parliamentary election in spite of signs that the authorities are planning to reduce the representation of the banned group, which is considered the largest opposition force in the country.
Egypt’s main legal opposition parties, all of which are judged to be extremely weak, had demanded guarantees from the authorities of a free and fair contest. Their conditions have not been met, but these parties have decided to participate anyway.
The Muslim Brotherhood faced a dilemma: contesting the election due in November would risk lending legitimacy to what they consider a flawed process, but a boycott would mean losing any representation in parliament.
The Brotherhood, which runs candidates as independents, won 88 seats – or 20 per cent of the total – in the last parliamentary polls in 2005. Its leaders say they would have gained more had it not been for ballot rigging.
Essam el-Erian, a member of the Brotherhood’s steering committee, said the group had resolved to contest the next poll.
“The rule for the Brotherhood is to take part,” he said.
“Boycotting for us is an exception which we would only contemplate if there is agreement among the opposition that no one would take part. So far this is not the case.”
The Brotherhood could run up to 200 candidates in November. Its success in the last election shocked Hosni Mubarak, the president – and the group’s own leaders, who had expected to win no more than 40 seats.
Since then, the authorities have responded by amending the constitution to abolish judicial supervision of elections.
Critics say this has removed an important safeguard against rigging.
In previous polls it was not uncommon for police to block access to polling stations in areas where Brotherhood candidates were known to be strong.
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a senior Brotherhood official, said this would probably prove unnecessary in November as there would be no judges overseeing the process. Mr Fotouh had urged a boycott “not because it was a tool to pressure the regime – they don’t care – but because [the election] is a waste of our time”.
However, other voices in the Brotherhood prevailed, largely because election campaigns give the illegal organisation a chance to connect with supporters and raise its profile.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who now leads an Egyptian opposition movement, has called for a boycott to rob Mr Mubarak’s regime of legitimacy.
Mr ElBaradei’s supporters has been collecting signatures on a petition calling for wide ranging changes to the constitution to ensure fair elections and to lift the restrictions on independent candidates in next year’s presidential vote.
Although the Brotherhood has helped Mr ElBaradei to collect most of the 800,000 signatures he has gathered in favour of political reform, the group has decided that a boycott is not in its interests