Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Would-be candidate in Egypt lashes out

Disqualified hopeful decries military role

Amro Hassan Los Angeles Times

CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood’s disqualified presidential hopeful Khairat el-Shater accused Egypt’s military leaders Wednesday of interfering in politics and endangering the nation’s transition to democracy following last year’s overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

In a first-of-its-kind incident from a leading Brotherhood official, el-Shater, the group’s biggest financier, openly attacked the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces saying the army is manipulating the elections process to hang on to power after a civilian president takes office in June.

“SCAF is strongly interfering in running elections. … It doesn’t have any real will to achieve a real transition of power,” el-Shater said at a news conference a day after the election commission barred him from next month’s presidential vote. “SCAF wants a president from its own men and we are in front of a clear attempt to restore Mubarak’s rule in a modified way.”

El-Shater also accused election commission chairman Farouk Sultan of working to serve the interests of the remnants of Mubarak’s regime. “On a national level, what happened is a crime by all measures,” el-Shater said. “Sultan is still loyal to Mubarak because it was him (Mubarak) who interfered to appoint him as head of the Constitutional Court.”

A prominent figure in Egypt’s biggest Islamic movement, el-Shater was barred from the election because of a politically motivated 2007 conviction brought by the Mubarak government to weaken the Brotherhood.