Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

The Muslim Brotherhood Bows out Graciously

The Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the second round of voting in the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 5, after being all but shut out in the first round of voting. Claims of rigging, fraud, and intimidation are still ringing in everyone’s ears. Even the US has expressed its dismay at reports of intimidation of voters and MB candidates.

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 The Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the second round of voting in the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 5, after being all but shut out in the first round of voting. Claims of rigging, fraud, and intimidation are still ringing in everyone’s ears. Even the US has expressed its dismay at reports of intimidation of voters and MB candidates.

Even though the government claims the vote was free and fair, the results suggest otherwise. The ruling party now holds almost all of the 508 seats in Egypt's parliament. Not only the Muslim Brotherhood but all the other opposition groups in Egypt have been almost wiped out of the political arena with Mubarak determined to run again.

In 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood made a stunning comeback in the elections winning a fifth of the seats in parliament, shocking the government which vowed and declared it would see to it that the MB does not succeed again this time round. Everyone, from the voter on the street in Egypt to the US government acknowledges that Egypt’s parliamentary elections in 2010 were rigged. This documented fact will go down in history, a slander against the Egyptian people, a shame on countries, institutions and individuals that respect and struggle for democracy and a slap in the face for the Egyptian government, which may well end up competing against itself.

Mohammed Badie, chairman of the MB, spoke out: "These elections are invalid in most of the constituencies, which will raise questions about the legitimacy of everything that comes out of this parliament. We are warning: this is about the future of Egypt, and not the future of the ruling party." Badie speaks for an organization that is ‘outlawed’ by the current Egyptian government, despite the regime’s own criminal behaviour: detention of more than 1400 MB members prior to the elections; vote rigging; intimidating MB members, candidates, candidates’ deputies, and voters; breaking up peaceful rallies with tear gas, gunfire, batons, and the list goes on.

 

Joe Stork from Human Rights Watch says the police presence during the Egyptian elections was not just about keeping the peace. He said: And that presence seems to have been with the intention of disrupting the voting process, intimidating voters perhaps, in some cases actually physically expelling those representatives of opposition candidates who had managed to get inside.

Egypt has been designated a semi-police state and Egyptians are understandably very wary of publicly criticising their government but on the street, and especially at election time, there is clearly annoyance at what has happened at this election.

Finding itself between the devil and the deep blue sea, the MB can not turn to the US for more than a sympathetic ear and the Egyptian population is looking to them for their next move, but the MB has vowed its determination to continue the movement of peaceful change through legal processes – hardly an extremist stance – and will continue to monitor and expose the government’s irregularities. So while the US expresses its dismay, Mubarak’s regime remains entrenched in power and Egypt under the firm control of its president, the US’s favourite Arab dictator.

It is unlikely that the US would celebrate the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood taking control of Egypt but in a true democracy their opinion would not matter; as it would be the Egyptian themselves who would decide.

 

For now, however, it is timely for the Muslim Brotherhood –amid its increasing popularity - to boycott the run-offs and further expose the government’s fraudulent behaviour, and as the regime’s integrity is further called to question, the credibility of the Muslim Brotherhood will increase.