Sunday’s papers prioritize election news and MB follow ups

Sunday’s papers prioritize election news and MB follow ups


 
The state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram on its front page cites news that President Mubarak has announced that the upcoming annual conference of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) will be postponed from November 9 to December 25; meaning it will be convened one month after parliamentary elections slated for November 28.
 
According to the article, this has been done so the party can dedicate itself to the election campaign. Analysts, however, have probed deeper believing that the reason behind the delay is the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and internal power struggles. Safwat al-Sherif, the NDP’s secretary general, has asserted that the party is in the final stages of choosing its parliamentary candidate lists.
 
Al-Ahram continues its defaming media campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood quoting Kamal Zaki Al-Lamae, chief judge of the Administrative Court, as describing the MB motto “Islam Is the Solution” as violating the laws that oversee political rights. The article adds, in short, that what it normally describes as political rights is the government’s desire to prevent the MB from using the slogan that brought the group much success in the 2005 parliamentary elections where they secured one-fifth of the available seats.
The independent daily Al-Shorouq puts more emphasis on the MB news on its front page, reporting on the MB’s accusations of the escalating government campaign to weaken the group before the elections and the state security’s sweep arresting 361 members and storming 106 Brotherhood affiliates.
 
In a press conference on Saturday, MB candidates, Essam Mokhtar and Mohamed Beltagi, confirmed that the government was responsible for the political harassment. They vowed that the group would not fold under government pressure from what they described as a historically critical election.
 
The privately-owned daily Al-Dostour puts billionaire, Naguib Sawaris, a Copt, on top of its front page citing him as appealing to his fellow Egyptian Christians to avoid self-inflicted isolation and mingle more openly in Egypt’s predominantly Muslim society.