 The banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition force, laid out its conditions yesterday for supporting President Hosni Mubarak in this year's presidential elections. The brotherhood will support the candidacy of president Mubarak or his son Jamal, if measures are taken to ensure a smooth presidential election and the state of emergency is lifted," the movement's second-in-command Mohammad Habib said. He stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood was not opposed to the concept of hereditary power, which has been one of the main grievances of the burgeoning opposition reform movement.
| "I mean, the caliphs and the sultans used to do it all the time, right? So it's Islamic!" |
Although commentators had long predicted Jamal Mubarak was being groomed to take over from his father, the president's son recently announced that he would not run in the vote expected to take place in September. The 76-year-old ruler, who has been in power since Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981, could yet seek a fifth mandate, although no formal announcement has yet been made. Egyptian police are holding about 200 members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, detained before and during an attempt to protest outside parliament in favour of reform, the Brotherhood said yesterday. |