The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) condemned on Friday a court ruling overturning a decision banning leaders of the now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) from running in the upcoming parliamentary elections. This comes as the FJP expects a court ruling on its own group, potentially banning it.
The Supreme Administrative Court was scheduled on Saturday to look into challenges made by the committee governing the activities of political parties calling for dissolving the FJP, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing.
In a statement released on Friday, the FJP warned of the “continuation of using the judiciary as a tool for the military coup to destroy the January 2011 revolution and all its gains”. The party added that its “legitimacy stems from the people” and not from the committee handling the parties’ affairs or from the “politicised” judiciary.
An Urgent Matters Court banned the NDP, former President Hosni Mubarak’s party, from running in the coming parliamentary elections on 6 May. The Cairo Urgent Matters Court of Appeals overturned the decision on Monday.
The FJP accused NDP members of destroying political and economic life in Egypt.
Monday’s ruling stated that the plaintiff failed to present to court any evidence incriminating NDP leaders in corruption charges. The court added that in that case, the initial decision would have violated such leaders’ right to political participation.
The Supreme Administrative Court dissolved the NDP and ordered the liquidation of its assets in April 2011, shortly after Mubarak was toppled. Mubarak occupied the party’s chairmanship since he became president in 1981 until his ouster.
On 15 April, the Alexandria Urgent Matters Court banned any Muslim Brotherhood member from running in any of the upcoming elections.
The Brotherhood, which was classified as a terrorist organisation by the cabinet in December, has been the target of an extensive crackdown since former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster last July.
