CAIRO,
November 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Egypt's opposition coalition,
which groups opposition parties and the Muslim Brotherhood, will
consider during a meeting on Saturday, November 12, boycotting the two
remaining phases of the country's legislative elections, protesting
the rigging of the first phase in favor of the ruling party.
"The
National Front for Change will meet to discuss a joint action plan in
response to wide-scale rigging," George Ishaq, a co-founder and
leader of the Kefaya (Enough) movement, told IslamOnline.net on
Thursday November 10.
"Quitting
the elections will be one of the options on the table if all powers
agree to that," he added.
Ishaq
said other options like demonstrations and conference would also be
mooted to protest rigging in favor of the ruling National Democratic
Party (NDP).
Voters
in eight of Egypt's governorates cast ballot Wednesday, November 9, in
the first round of an almost month-long three-phase parliamentary
polls.
This
first round involved a total of 1,635 candidates vying for 164 of the
People's Assembly's 444 seats that are up for grabs.
President
Hosni Mubarak, also the NDP's leader, has a constitutional right to
appoint ten members to the legislature.
The
opposition coalition has fielded 222 candidates from eleven parties
and groups.
Brotherhood
Could Join
 |
|
Opposition
candidates complained of vote buying, hooliganism and pressures
practiced on voters. (Reuters)
|
Abdel
Moneim Abul-Fotouh, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said they
could join the protest measure.
"In
case all parties in Saturday's meeting and their candidates agreed on
withdrawal from the elections, the Muslim Brotherhood may join
them," he told IOL.
Muslim
Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef accused the ruling regime
Wednesday of wide-scale rigging of the elections.
"Irregularities
began since the polling stations opened early Wednesday morning,"
he had said.
Mohamed
Habib, Akef's deputy, told IOL that three of the group's 51 candidates
have secured parliamentary seats in the first round.
He
added that other 38 candidates will vie in the runoff on November 15,
a far better results than all other opposition parties.
"Despite
the rigging, the results show that the competition is only between the
Muslim Brotherhood and the NDP, with the group's candidates in the
lead."
Some
of the Brotherhood and opposition parties' candidates have reported
many irregularities.
Vote
buying, hooliganism and psychological pressures practiced on voters
were but few of the charges leveled against the NDP.
The
Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned but, between periodic
crackdowns, is often tolerated and has 16 deputies in the outgoing
parliament.
Hundreds
of its members have been detained during anti-government protests
since May, but most have been released.
