In our last statement, we extended our thanks to the Egyptian people for the unique and tremendously civilised performance witnessed in the record turnout to the ballots, standing in long queues for hours to vote in the selection of their parliamentary representatives, to exercise their freedom and live their sovereignty and democracy. Today, we give the great people of this homeland double the thanks for granting us their trust, which we hold dear.

At the same time, we feel the weight and magnitude of the responsibility this means. We will do our utmost to be worthy of that trust and that responsibility. We pray that God will help us serve our country and our people even better than we always did, so He and also our people would be pleased with our endeavours. Further, we pray that God will bless and guide our cooperation with all sincere citizens to salvage and rebuild our great people and the whole nation out of the current state of total meltdown. Furthermore, we pray God will help us, with this great nation, in endeavours for the advancement and progress, rejuvenation and prosperity of our beloved Egypt, to restore for it the status it deserves domestically, regionally and internationally.

We also extend our thanks to all those who contributed to the success of the electoral process, from management to security and all.

We also call on everyone to make the second and third phases of the elections even better and more effective than the first, avoiding the few negative aspects that marred that previous stage, so the whole process comes out closer to perfection than ever before, and impresses the world with the refinement, excellence and enlightenment of the Egyptian people who have already impressed the world with the January 25 glorious revolution.

We said it before and we still and will continue to say that we respect the will of the people and accept their choice, because these are the basics of the democracy we call for and abide by. Hence, we call on everyone – and all of them belong to democracy – to respect the will of the people and accept their choice. Those who were unsuccessful this time, should endeavour to serve the people even better, in order to earn their support in times to come.

We regard political action as competing in the service of the people, not a struggle for seats and gains. Thus, competition should be honest, governed by good principles and ethics in all actions, words and statements, attitudes and propaganda and campaigns, media and news reports. That way we may hope to please Allah, better serve the interests of the people, achieve inner, spiritual peace, and provide a climate of national reconciliation for the common good.