By Tamim Elyan
CAIRO: Mohamed Kamal, the NDP’s secretary of political education and training and head of its youth committee, said the outcome of the current parliamentary elections would define the relationship between religion and the state in Egypt.
Kamal described the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) participation in the elections as illegal and violates Egyptian laws.
“We witnessed that they are still using religious slogans in their campaigns despite articles in the Egyptian constitution banning any political activity based on religion,” Kamal said Saturday at a roundtable discussion with reporters at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, titled “Egypt on the eve of 2010 Parliamentary Elections.”
Last week, the NDP filed a report to the prosecutor general to investigate the involvement of MB candidates in political activities under the “name of this illegal organization.”
“MB candidates are running in the elections as independents although in reality they are functioning as a political party and they explicitly attach themselves to this banned group which is illegal,” Kamal said.
“The NDP’s complaint isn’t about the current elections; it is about the future of Egypt and doing it late is better than never,” he added.
According to Kamal, the MB is “welcome” to turn into a political party if they abandon their religious ideology.
Kamal said that the upcoming parliament will have an important legislative role as the NDP prepares for the introduction of the new healthcare system and new local governance law as well as next year’s presidential elections.
“It is a very competitive election with an average of 10 candidates competing per seat and the results will show the real strength of political parties and will contest the role of local NGOs in monitoring the elections,” Kamal said.
He added that the existence or absence of judges in voting stations isn’t the only guarantee of fairness in the elections since opposition candidates will be present inside the stations and would report any violations.
