By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: Muslim Brotherhood members who participate in presidential hopeful Abdel Moneim Abol Fotoh’s campaign will be sacked, the group’s spokesperson said Saturday.
Mahmoud Ghazlan, the official spokesperson of the MB, said in a phone interview with Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr, “We don’t have double standards.”
Ghazlan tried to avoid answering the question, but folded under the persistence of the anchor.
He said it was highly unlikely that Brotherhood members would violate the group’s decision.
“We are looking for someone eligible for this position [president] and when we find him and support him, I don’t think [any member] would violate the group’s decision,” he said.
The Brotherhood said it would not nominate a presidential candidate from the group or its Freedom and Justice Party, adding that it would announce its support for a candidate with an Islamic background when registration concludes on April 8.
Last September, member of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Abdel-Karim was sacked from the group for attending a Ramadan iftar held by Abol Fotoh, who is a former member of the group’s political bureau.
The membership of four others was frozen, including a member of the executive bureau of the Freedom and Justice Party, while around 35 other members were verbally reprimanded for attending the iftar.
The group’s Secretary General Mahmoud Hussein justified the group’s decision saying that attending this iftar was considered a violation of the group’s announcement not to field or support any members affiliated or formerly affiliated with the group.
“Being affiliated with the group means abiding by its decisions,” Hussein previously told Daily News Egypt.
Last July, the MB group sacked Abol Fotoh for violating its decision not to contest the next presidential polls. He announced that he would join the race after the group repeatedly said that it would not field a candidate.
