CAIRO, 13 December 2005 — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak conceded yesterday there had been “flaws” in recent parliamentary elections but hailed the polls as a major step toward democratic reform. “The legislative elections, despite their flaws, are an important step forward in the march toward political and democratic reform,” he was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency.
He was addressing the ruling National Democratic Party’s parliamentary group a day before the new People’s Assembly’s meets following the monthlong elections.
According to official results, the NDP obtained 311 seats, more than half of them party members who initially ran as independents. The ruling party had 404 MPs out of the 454 in the outgoing Parliament. The Muslim Brothers shocked the country by garnering 88 seats, six times their tally in the outgoing chamber.
The supreme guide of the Brotherhood said his movement would seek to depose the Mubarak regime in further elections. “The new Parliament will probably propose a new constitutional amendment. Let it be the expression of the people’s will and hopes,” Mohammed Mehdi Akef said late Sunday. He was speaking at a reception in a luxury Cairo hotel during which he presented the 88 members of the Islamist movement.
“Make sure to restrict the limitless powers granted to the president of the republic, guarantee that he is elected through universal suffrage and in good conditions, that his mandates be limited to two and that a change of power through elections be possible,” Akef told his MPs.
