Muslim Brotherhood members banned from elections

A court in Egypt has banned members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement from running in upcoming elections.

On Tuesday, a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria ordered Egyptian officials to bar any candidacies by the members or former members of the movement in presidential and parliamentary elections.

“It is illogical to receive such candidacies after the government designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organization,” said Tareq Mahmoud, a lawyer from the group that filed a petition for the ban.

“We submitted videos, photos and documents showing terrorist acts carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is why it is illogical that they lead the country or represent its people in elections,” he added.

In December 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood was blacklisted by the country’s military- installed government as a “terrorist group”.

Egypt is set to hold a presidential election on May 26-27, which is to be followed by parliamentary polls.

The country has been experiencing unrelenting violence since the first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted on July 3. Hundreds have lost their lives in the ensuing violence across the country.

Egypt’s military-backed government has launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi’s supporters and arrested thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members, including the party’s senior leaders.

The Egyptians launched a revolution against Hosni Mubarak’s pro-Israeli regime on January 25, 2011, which eventually put an end to the 30-year dictatorship of Mubarak on February 11, 2011.

NT/AS/MHB