Brotherhood, Freedom and Justice Joint Statement Endorses Al-Shater in Presidential Race

A joint statement of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice party, delivered by Dr. Mahmoud Hussein, Secretary General of the Brotherhood, on Saturday evening, endorsed Khairat Al-Shater to run for the presidency. It asserted that while the Brotherhood does not seek power, it does seek to achieve the purpose for which it was founded and for which it worked for many years. It, therefore, undertakes to bear the historical responsibility of achieving the objectives of the Egyptian revolution, which impressed the whole world. The Brotherhood is confident of success, with God’s help and the support of the people and their cooperation with the organization in maintaining the gains of the revolution.

The statement said: "The Brotherhood Shura Council’s decision not to nominate or endorse a candidate from the Muslim Brotherhood in past sessions was based on internal and external reasons. In any event, it was meant to ensure the success of the revolution. However, increasing challenges convinced the Brotherhood that there is a real threat to the revolution, the process of democratic transformation and the transition of power.

"Since the great Egyptian people rose in revolt and toppled the head of the corrupt former regime, Egypt felt the breeze of freedom, and immediately certain ‘hands’ started attempts to obstruct the march of power transfer to elected civilians. That began with opposition to the referendum on the constitution. Then, there was the battle of the “Constitution First”. Then again, the so-called supra-constitutional governing principles, not to mention the arguments over the method of elections, party nominee lists or individual candidates, which ended in consensus among the full spectrum of political parties, forces and stakeholders", said the statement.

It added that, then, began attempts to disrupt the functioning of parliament, followed by the battle of the Constituent Assembly, promoted by an absurdly massive orchestrated media campaign, which included the withdrawal of some of the Assembly’s newly elected member, although they had just expressed their pleasure for joining the panel. This the Brotherhood viewed as a serious impediment to the democratic path of transformation.

Further, the statement stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood did endeavor in many ways to reach a broad consensus with all parties, so all hues of Egyptian society would bear the responsibility of taking the homeland to the shores of safety and stability. The Brotherhood also to achieve harmony and consensus with everyone in order to restore security the rule of law, to form a national consensus government from the parliamentary majority, with positive participation by other parties. But it was all in vain.

“Then, the Brotherhood was blatantly threatened with dissolution of the newly elected People's Assembly and Shura Council. Even more, a clearly failing government was clinging desperately to power. Worse still, a number of candidates from the defunct old regime were being encouraged and put forward as presidential candidates. Then again, certain ‘hands’ plotted diligently to derail and disrupt the work of the elected Constituent Assembly. Nevertheless, the Muslim Brotherhood was keen to comply with the announcement it had made earlier, and it communicated with many public figures to resolve the matter, but they all refused and apologized. Faced with these challenges, and after studying the situation in its entirety, the Muslim Brotherhood decided to field its own presidential candidate”, the statement concluded.