Habib: Tuesday’s Local Elections “A Farce”

The Muslim Brotherhood said today it will boycott municipal elections after being allowed to field only 21 candidates out of 10,000, calling on the Egyptian people to boycott Tuesday”s elections because of the flagrant violations committed by the government ahead of these elections.
 
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) statement was announced in the press conference held today to declare the Muslim Brotherhood”s stance towards the April 8 elections.
 
MB statement confirmed that the Egyptian regime carried out all possible means to exclude the opposition out of local elections, using all obstruction means such as preventing candidates form registering their names in the election lists, assaulting candidates at registration stations, arresting more than 900 during the last few days, and even the government”s refusal to annul municipal elections in many governorates in respect to court rulings, and refusal to implement court verdicts to register MB candidates in the upcoming elections.
 
The MB statement said that the MB will continue their political and legal struggle to annul the municipal elections, and would peacefully strive for reform in Egypt through all possible constitutional and legal means.
 
Dr. Mohamed Habib, deputy chairman of the MB, said in an exclusive statement to Ikhwanweb that violations committed by the Egyptian government in municipal elections were expected before the beginning of the registration days. However, the violations committed have far exceeded all expectations.
 
Habib said that nearly 10,000 MB candidates were expected to participate in 2008 municipal elections. However, only 5,754 of them were allowed to prepare their needed documents for registration. The MB candidates list has even shrunk to include only 498 members who have succeeded to present their candidacy papers at registration stations.
 
“Ironically,” Habib added, “Only 21 names of MB members were registered in the final lists of municipal elections.”
 
Mohamed Habib said that around 4000 lawsuits for the MB candidates have been filed so that they would be able to field themselves as candidates, more than 2,600 of them has won, allowing MB candidates to register themselves. In addition to nearly 1,000 court rulings annulling municipal elections in many places around Egypt.
 
“However, the executive authorities totally disrespect court rulings, refusing to implement them.” Said Habib.
 
Accordingly, Habib urged the executive authorities to implement the court rulings on one hand, and urged people not to vote in such elections in protest at the government”s “disregard for justice”. 
 
Habib added that having 21 MB candidates among 52,000 seats in Tuesday”s elections represents a farce made by the National Democratic Party who insists on proceeding it till the end, and the Muslim Brotherhood refuses to participate in such farce.