Mohamed Omar
The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) will field candidates for every seat in upcoming parliamentary elections.
Saad Al-Katatni, one of the candidates for the FJP chairman position, made the announcement on Tuesday on television programme Life Today.
He said the FJP would, “seek a 50 per cent plus one majority in the upcoming parliamentary elections, so we will run with others for all of the seats.”
Ahmed Mubarak, a member of Al-Dostour party, said, “this could make for a dangerous situation, similar to one that we saw with Hosni Mubarak and the National Democratic Party. The party affiliated with the president holding a majority in parliament will not represent the citizens.” He added, “the parliament should represent all the people.”
On the programme, Al-Katatni denied that this would be the case, stating, “the Muslim Brotherhood would not attempt to monopolise discussion in the name of religion.” He also pointed out that the FJP joined with other political parties in the last parliamentary elections. He insisted that the Muslim Brotherhood is part of a modern democratic state.
The FJP led the Democratic Alliance for Egypt (DAE) in the last elections, which was an alliance of various political parties. The alliance included Ayman Nour’s secular Ghad El-Thawra Party, the Dignity Party and other parties representing different ideologies.
Al-Katatni also said, “Egypt needs strong parties to ensure the actual transfer of power… The goal of the FJP is for access to justice and good governance, which holds the transfer of power.”
In the last parliamentary elections the FJP won 213 seats, which represented around 42 per cent of the seats. The DAE as a whole won 235, which represented 46 per cent of the parliament. The last People’s Assembly was dissolved by the Supreme Constitutional Court but was reinstated by President Mohamed Morsy only for the Supreme Constitutional Court to block Morsy’s decree.
