By Mina Ibrahim
“No to Religious Party” and “Expose Them” signed a cooperation protocol in an attempt to coordinate their strategies.
The two groups, which have popular mobilisation agendas against the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist political parties, met on Saturday and issued their first joint statement.
The statement included a plan to exchange information between the two groups, and to unify their efforts in an attempt to “expose the corrupt” candidates of the 2015 parliamentary elections that began on Sunday in 14 governorates.
The statement declared that the coordination between the two groups will try to expose candidates “who belong or who are financed by the terrorist group of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
The two groups only targeted members of the Brotherhood in their statement. They also campaigned against candidates who were previous members of the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) that was outlawed post January 2011 uprisings.
Furthermore, the two groups announced that they will make sure candidates who are a “danger on the nation and on its future” are hindered from reaching the parliament, urging Egyptians to vote and to participate in building their country in a democratic way.
Last Sunday, the “No to Religious Parties” campaign group announced it collected 1.25m signatures against Islamic parties at a press conference it held in Downtown Cairo to highlight its accomplishments.
During the conference, campaign coordinator Mohamed Attiya announced that “even after the parliamentary elections, we can still continue our case against the Islamist parties. The members of these parties will be replaced by others after we win the case”.
Since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the Al-Nour Party stands as the only active Islamist party in the Egyptian political scene. It has been facing many lawsuits from groups and individual lawyers, arguing that it continues the legacy of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Brotherhood. However, the party usually responds by saying it is not a religious party, and that it welcomes Christians to join its ranks.
