The Muslim Brotherhood said Sunday that it will fight the banning of its candidate for president that has thrown Egypt’s move toward elected civilian rule into disarray and threatens a return to massive street protests. “We do not accept it. We will challenge it,” said Gehad El-Haddad, a member of the steering committee for the Renaissance Project, which is at the heart of the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential campaign. Ten presidential candidates were barred from contesting the nation’s top job in a decision announced Saturday by the presidential election commission, five weeks before the presidential race is set to begin in May. The decision comes at the tail end of a week marred by a slew of shocks and shifts — from a candidate jumble to a march on Tahrir Square— that persisted in shaking the pre-election period.
“There is a continuously increasing state of confusion,” Egyptian writer and blogger Bassem Sabry said. Among the 10 deemed ineligible to run, three were front-runners in the race for Egypt’s presidency. They are former head of intelligence Omar Suleiman, Muslim Brotherhood nominee Khairat al-Shater and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, a lawyer who supports an Islamic state such as Iran’s. All three are appealing the decisions.
Full Article: Muslim Brotherhood refuses to accept ban – USATODAY.com.