Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour, The Egyptian People"s Assembly Speaker surprised all when he said," It is time for the Muslim Brotherhood to have a party instead of running in elections as independents, to put an end to their designation as an outlawed group."

Sorour said this on Monday, March 24 in a joint meeting of the committees of Defence and National Security and Foreign Relations to assess the visit of the Egyptian parliamentary delegation to America- a delegation that was formed taking into account the representation of political trends in the People"s Assembly. "The Muslim Brotherhood"s MPs should have been part of the delegation as they are representing a majority of independent MPs", the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Yom quoted him as saying.

"But the Congress has only three independent congressmen. So, the representation of the Egyptian parliamentary delegation should be similar to the Congress"s".

Mohamed Saad El Katatni, chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood"s parliamentary bloc, saw Souror"s statements as merely a media stunt which have no political value. They came in reply to a question about why no Muslim Brotherhood MP was among the Egyptian parliamentary delegation that went to the United States although the Brotherhood Mps account for a fifth of the Parliament seats.

El Katatni saw that Sourour"s reply was a kind of evasion from directly replying to the question.El Katatni downplayed the statement in his interview with Ikhwanweb and said that the Ruling National Democratic party is currently excluding all critics and denys them any political participation. He citied what is happening in the run-up to the local councils elections,with the exception of some secret alliances between the NDP and few other parties.

As another evidence on the lack of seriousness, El Katatni said that there are more than 12 Egyptian political parties who are struggling to gain an official recognition but the regime denys them this right.   In a related context, El Katatni said that the final draft of MB party platform is postponed until after municipal elections and the MB military tribunal verdict.