2011-04-30

Brotherhood forms `non-theocratic` party

CAIRO, Egypt, April 30: The formerly banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt`s best-organised movement, said on Saturday it formed a non-theocratic party that will contest up to half of parliament`s seats in September elections.

Mohammed Hussein, the group`s secretary general, told a news conference the movement`s council had decided to form the Freedom and Justice Party.

"We have adopted the measures taken by the guidance council regarding the Freedom and Justice Party and adopted its programme," he said.

He added that the party will contest 45-50 per cent of parliament`s 508 elected seats in the September polls, the first since a revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February. He did not say why the group had settled on that number.

The party, headed by Brotherhood politburo member Mohammed al-Mursi, will be "independent from the Brotherhood but will coordinate with it," he said

Mursi, who had run the Brotherhood`s previous parliamentary campaigns, said the party was not "theocratic." "It is not an Islamist party in the old understanding; it is not theocratic. It is a civil party." Egypt`s constitution bans parties based on religion, class or regionalism.

The Brotherhood has sought to allay fears that an Islamist parliamentary majority might emerge from the polls and said it would be willing to cooperate with secular groups in the September election.

It has also pledged not to field a candidate in a presidential election, to be held in November.

A tentative party programme leaked to the press in 2008 said that only an Egyptian Muslim male could be president of the country, causing a fire storm of criticism at the time.—AFP

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