Elections to select new FJP president likely in October

Elections to pick the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party’s (FJP) new chairman are planned in the first two weeks of October, after the party’s executive board calls for its general conference, according to an FJP senior member.

“Elections in the coming phase should come no later than the first or second week of October,” Amro Zaki, FJP senior member and former parliamentarian, told Daily News Egypt.

Zaki said selecting the party’s new leader will be worked out according to the executive board’s internal charter, which allows any of its 85 members to nominate themselves.

Although officially no members have announced their intentions to compete for the FJP’s presidency, Zaki said he has learnt that six or seven party figureheads are planning to run.

Ahmed Ziad, a member of the FJP executive committee, also told Daily News Egypt that elections are to take place in the first or second Fridays of October. Picking a new president for the party has been a top priority for the Muslim Brotherhood, he said.

According to Ziad, the party’s procedure of selecting a new president starts when it officially allows members to submit their applications. “This should happen by the end of September,” he said.

After this, the party will organise a general conference, bringing brings together the executive office, the supreme board and representatives of FJP’s general secretary branches in Egypt’s governorates. “The only item on the agenda for this conference will be the election of our new president,” he said.

However the media coordinator of the FJP’s executive board Ahmed Sabie denied Zaki’s statement regarding an October election. “When we announce the timing of the FJP’s general conference, elections will be confirmed,” he said.

Since President Mohamed Morsy assumed the presidency, the FJP has operated without a chairman. Essam Elerian, the current FJP vice-chairman, is now performing all duties of the party’s president. In June, Elerian denied he would assume the FJP chairman position. Elerian was unavailable to comment.