Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Seeks To Allay Fears Over Election Results
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, who according to initial results won the first phase of the parliamentary elections, have declared they represent “main stream” Islam, pointing out to the need to distinguish between them and the Salafis.
Based on the official results, Muslim Brotherhood’s party won 40% of the votes while the Salafi al Nour party won 20%.
Muslim Brotherhood’s spokesman Mahmoud Ghazlan has stated “The fears of liberals are irrelevant,” adding “We believe in moderate Islam and we do not impose anything by force. “He added: The change we seek will be gradually in all of the political, economic and social aspects.
Ghazlan called for the distinction between the various Islamic movements and not consider all of them as one group,” – referring to the Salafist movement. However, he acknowledged that the ratio obtained by the Salafi al Nour party was “more than we expected.”
In response to a question about the possibility of an alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood’s freedom and justice party and the Salafi party, Ghazlan said the talks on this “is premature . ”
He said: “The people chose an Islamic identity (for Egypt) and trust the Islamic parties. The Brotherhood has grown up and lived with the people and feel their pains.”
On the other hand, Essam El-Erian, Vice President of the Party of Freedom and Justice, said that the next parliament will be balanced and representative of all parties involved. According to him, so far based on the figures from the first round there are about 10 to 13 parties to be represented in the new Egyptian parliament .
