Salafist Al-Nour party backs El-Sisi in presidential race

The Salafist Nour party announced Saturday its support for former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to be Egypt’s next president

The announcement comes after the party’s supreme council, headed by its chairman, Younes Makhion held a meeting earlier on Saturday to discuss which of the candidates the party will support.

In a statement published by the party’s Facebook page, Makhion revealed that El-Sisi was voted for by an overwelming majority of members.

The Salafist party was officially established in the wake of the January 25 revolution by members of Egypt’s largest Salafist group, ‘The Salafist Call.” In the first post-revolution parliamentary elections, the Salafist party garnered the second highest number of seats after the Muslim Brotherhood.

The one time ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, backed Morsi’s ouster by endorsing a transitional roadmap -announced on 3 July by El-Sisi- that included amending the constitution and holding parliamentary and presidential polls by mid-2014.
The presidential elections, the first to be held since the ouster of Morsi, are scheduled to take place on 26-27 May with only El-Sisi and leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi facing off.

Source: Ahram Online