Egypt’s Brotherhood pins hopes on presidency

AYA BATRAWY

Asso­ci­ated Press

CAIRO — Egypt’s Mus­lim Broth­er­hood pinned its hopes Fri­day on week­end elec­tions to sal­vage its wan­ing polit­i­cal for­tunes, respond­ing to a court order dis­solv­ing its power base in par­lia­ment by urg­ing vot­ers to sup­port the Islamist group’s can­di­date for president.

The runoff vote set for Sat­ur­day and Sun­day pits Ahmed Shafiq, a military-rooted strong­man promis­ing a firm hand to ensure sta­bil­ity, against Broth­er­hood can­di­date Mohammed Morsi.

The Islamist move­ment has seen its for­tunes rise and fall dra­mat­i­cally in the 16 months since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Repressed under the old regime, it rose to become the strongest polit­i­cal force in par­lia­ment after elec­tions that started in Novem­ber only to lose that power when the leg­is­la­ture was dis­solved by court order on Thursday.

The Broth­er­hood is now hop­ing to sal­vage its posi­tion by por­tray­ing itself as the last bul­wark against the ousted president’s loy­al­ists bent on a comeback.

“Iso­late the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the for­mer regime through the bal­lot box,” a Broth­er­hood state­ment said on Fri­day, refer­ring to Shafiq. It was pub­lished just before the noon dead­line to end campaigning.

Some activists took to Cairo’s main squares to protest the court rul­ing. Morsi said in a Thurs­day news con­fer­ence the Broth­ers would focus on the vote instead. “We are going to the bal­lot boxes to say ‘no’ to the losers, the killers, the crim­i­nals,” he said, refer­ring to Mubarak-era officials.

At the same time the Broth­er­hood made over­tures to the country’s mil­i­tary coun­cil — widely per­ceived as favor­ing ex-air force com­man­der Shafiq. Morsi gave assur­ances that he would work closely with the country’s mil­i­tary rulers and keep the inter­ests of the armed forces at heart.

“As pres­i­dent, they will be in my heart and will get my atten­tion. … They will never do any­thing to harm the nation,” he said Thursday.

The Broth­er­hood is reel­ing after the rul­ing from the Supreme Con­sti­tu­tional Court that dis­solved the Islamist-dominated par­lia­ment, where its party held the most seats. The court found the law gov­ern­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions was uncon­sti­tu­tional as it allowed party mem­bers to con­test a third of the seats set aside for independents.

The court also threw out leg­is­la­tion that would have banned Shafiq as a senior for­mer Mubarak offi­cial from running.

Last year’s par­lia­men­tary elec­tions were seen as Egypt’s first demo­c­ra­tic bal­lot­ing in gen­er­a­tions. Thursday’s court deci­sion erased their out­come and left the coun­try with­out a legislature.

The Broth­er­hood said that that progress made since Mubarak was ousted was being “wiped out and over­turned.” The coun­try is fac­ing a sit­u­a­tion that is “even more dan­ger­ous than that in the final days of Mubarak’s rule.”

Shafiq, in his final days of cam­paign­ing, has played on fears that the Broth­er­hood would try to impose a hard­line ver­sion of Islamic law and curb the rights of women and Christians.

“We want a par­lia­ment that real­is­ti­cally rep­re­sents all seg­ments of the Egypt­ian peo­ple and a civil state whose bor­ders and legit­i­macy are pro­tected by our valiant armed forces,” he said Thurs­day, vis­i­bly ener­gized by the court’s rulings.

It is unclear how the dis­so­lu­tion of par­lia­ment will affect the race. It could bol­ster the Brotherhood’s Morsi, who now rep­re­sents for many the only option to chal­lenge decades of mil­i­tary power.

In con­trast, it could also boost Shafiq, believed to be the military’s pre­ferred can­di­date backed by strong resources. Many vot­ers also see Shafiq as the only hope for a sec­u­lar state.

Secu­rity is being beefed up around polling sta­tions nation­wide with more than dou­ble the num­ber of troops and police com­pared to last month’s first-round vote. Accord­ing to secu­rity offi­cials, there will be around 200,000 police­men and 200,000 sol­diers deployed to secure an elec­tion that may see vio­lence flare.

In addi­tion, more than 200 police­men were deployed Fri­day out­side par­lia­ment to block law­mak­ers from entering.

On the eve of the vote, power appears con­cen­trated even more firmly in the hands of the gen­er­als who took over from Mubarak.

The dis­so­lu­tion of par­lia­ment is seen as help­ing the mil­i­tary retain this power beyond the pres­i­den­tial vote, even though it has pledged to trans­fer author­ity to whomever is elected.

An unnamed judi­cial source quoted in the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper’s web­site said that the mil­i­tary will keep leg­isla­tive pow­ers and con­trol over state finances until either a new par­lia­ment is elected or a new con­sti­tu­tion is written.

The mil­i­tary coun­cil might also appoint a panel to draft a new con­sti­tu­tion. The Brotherhood-dominated par­lia­ment was on the verge of select­ing a panel when it was dissolved.

This week, the gov­ern­ment appointed by the gen­er­als allowed mil­i­tary, police and intel­li­gence agents to arrest civil­ians for a wide range of offenses — a throw­back to harsh prac­tices of the deposed regime. The gov­ern­ment said the mea­sure was temporary.

Activists who engi­neered Egypt’s upris­ing have long noted that after 60 years as the nation’s most dom­i­nant insti­tu­tion, the mil­i­tary would be reluc­tant to sur­ren­der its author­ity or open its vast eco­nomic empire to civil­ian scrutiny.

Faced with a pos­si­ble Shafiq elec­tion win and a mil­i­tary that may retain its pow­ers long after the elec­tion, one of the youth groups, the April 6 move­ment, threw its sup­port behind Morsi.

It planned a march to Cairo’s Tahrir Square Fri­day after­noon dubbed “No to the military’s soft coup.” The Broth­er­hood, in line with its strat­egy of focus­ing on elec­tions, did not call on its mem­bers to participate.

Around 500 peo­ple took part in the protest, tear­ing down a large Shafiq poster that they stomped on and had cars drive over. The pro­test­ers, who were joined by some ultra­con­ser­v­a­tive Salafis, chanted “Down with mil­i­tary rule!”

But other left­ist, lib­eral and sec­u­lar forces who launched the pro-democracy upris­ing bemoaned the choice between an Islamist and a for­mer regime fig­ure, and some talked of a boycott.

The rul­ing gen­er­als warned Fri­day they would “deal firmly” with any­one who tries to pre­vent cit­i­zens from vot­ing, accord­ing to the state run Al-Ahram.

Egyp­tians liv­ing abroad already cast bal­lots ear­lier in June. The Broth­er­hood claims to have won a “land­slide vic­tory” and says Morsi won 75 per­cent of those valid votes. The group did not release exact fig­ures, and offi­cial results have not been announced.

Posted by AP News on Jun 15 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.