Alexandria Court Orders Egypt’s Elections Committee To Bar Brotherhood Candidates From Polls

An Alexandria court has ordered Egypt’s Supreme Elections Committee (SEC) to ban members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood from running as candidates in Egypt’s elections.

The Mediterranean city’s Court for Urgent Matters issued a verdict on Tuesday mandating that the committee not accept any presidential or parliamentary applications from the group.

The Brotherhood has not pushed for a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, maintaining that ousted president Mohamed Morsi is still Egypt’s legitimate leader.

The Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, was labelled a terrorist group last December after a terrorist attack in the Nile Delta’s Daqahliya governorate.

The bombing targeted the police headquarters in the city of Mansoura, killing 16 and injuring 134. Although Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis – an Al-Qaeda offshoot based in the Sinai Peninsula – claimed responsibility for the attack, Egypt’s interim government still blamed the Brotherhood, who denied any involvement in the bombing.

The final and official list of candidates for the 2014 presidential elections will be announced on 2 May.

The election will take place on 26-27 May.

Former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Nasserist politician Hamdeen Sabahi and lawyer Mortada Mansour have all said they will run.

The current interim president, Adly Mansour, was the head of the High Constitutional Court before Morsi’s ouster.

Morsi was removed from the presidency by the military on 3 July 2013, following mass protests demanding early elections.

El-Sisi, who resigned from his position as defence minister to run for president, announced Morsi’s ouster on live television in the presence other political, national and religious figures. He is expected to win the presidency by a landslide.

Source : Ahram online