CAIRO, 25 October 2005 — Chanting “Islam is the solution,” Muslim Brotherhood supporters are taking to the streets in rare public rallies to encourage Egyptians to vote for their banned Islamist movement in parliamentary elections next month. Hundreds of Brotherhood activists urged Egyptians to vote for their group in a march in a Cairo suburb on Thursday evening, tolerated by the authorities which have frequently cracked down on the officially outlawed movement.
The Brotherhood sidesteps its ban by fielding candidates as independents. It won 17 of 444 elected seats in 2000, making it the chamber’s biggest opposition bloc. “Who are we? Who are we? We are the Muslim Brotherhood,” chanted the 600 men, women and children as they passed through middle- and working-class parts of northern Cairo.
Activists handed out glossy election campaign leaflets to pedestrians and people smoking water pipes in cafes, who appeared bemused by the campaign march - something not usually seen in parliamentary elections. “The march is, perhaps, one of the best ways to attract people’s attention,” deputy Brotherhood leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters. “The candidates are holding marches in all the constituencies,” he said.
The authorities are granting the Muslim Brotherhood unusual leeway in the run-up to the elections, releasing instead of arresting the movement’s activists and not impeding campaigning. The Brotherhood is fielding some 150 candidates this year — double its participation in 2000 — encouraged by what it sees as more political freedom and wider political awareness in the Arab world’s biggest country.
North Cairo candidates Essam Mokhtar and Makarim Eldery, who is the Brotherhood’s only woman candidate, met voters in cafes and shops during Thursday’s march and handed out leaflets outlining the movement’s goals.
Egypt has decided to allow local civic groups to monitor the elections if they have approval from a government-backed human rights council, the official MENA news agency reported.
“The electoral commission has entrusted the council to take requests by Egyptian civic organizations ... review their applications and send a list to the commission for its consideration, following which it will deliver the necessary permits,” it said.
