In an interview with al-Shurūq al-Jadīd, al-Wafd Foreign Affairs head Muná Makram ‘Ubayd accused the authorities of not letting her win in the parliamentary elections because she is a Copt. She claims that her candidacy had the most votes and that she even received congratulatory telegrams from leading National Democratic Party members, but she was then dropped for being elected.

‘Ubayd says that her loss in the elections is a message to Copts outside of the ruling party: you will never be elected to parliament unless the ruling party wishes to use you as a decoration. She says that the NDP also ensured that the Muslim Brotherhood lost all of its seats, saying that although she disagrees with their ideology, the group is the strongest opposition in the country. Muná then accused Muslim Brotherhood members of the NDP of being behind the discriminatory agenda that has resulted in the degradation of Egypt.

She also said that the reason why Washington has not yet commented on the elections (despite requests by various Egyptian thinkers) is that America is only concerned with the apparent “stability” of Egypt, which she says is in a recession.