Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Murshid (Guide) Dr. Muhammad Badī’ on Saturday (March 31) announced fielding Engineer Khayrat al-Shātir, his First Deputy Murshid, as the group’s candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections.
Badī’ denied any understandings between the MB and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) over the nomination of Shātir, adding the decision was taken inside the group after a series of meetings that discussed the matter “from all its perspectives”.
“Shātir has resigned from his post as First Deputy Murshid and also quitted his membership of the Irshād (Guidance) Office but kept his membership of the group and its shūrá council,” Badī’ said in a press conference.
Dr. Muhammad Mursī, leader of the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party, speaking in the conference, said the FJP’s higher board has unanimously agreed to nominate Shātir as president of the republic.
“The MB has named Shātir to run in the presidential elections after it has found out that forming a government to replace Janzūrī’s is facing a dead end,” Mursī said, noting the FJP, however, will continue measures to put the government of Dr. Kamāl al-Janzūrī to a no-confidence vote in parliament. [‘Abd al-‘Azīz Mahmūd, Khālid Abū al-‘Izz, Amānī Mājid, Hānī ‘Izzat and Su’ād Tantāwī, al-Ahrām, April 1, p. 1] Read original text in Arabic
