Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood announces formation of new party to contest up to half of parliament’s seats in next election

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday announced the formation of a party to contest up to half of parliament's seats in a September election and stressed the new party was not theocratic, but civil.

Mohammed Hussein, the group's secretary general, said at a news conference that the movement's consultative council decided at a meeting to adopt a decision to form the new Freedom and Justice Party. "We have adopted the measures taken by the guidance council regarding the Freedom and Justice Party and adopted its program," he said.

He said the party, which will be headed by the Brotherhood's politburo member Mohammed al-Mursi, will be "independent from the Brotherhood but will coordinate with it."

The party will contest only between 45 and 50 percent of seats in an upcoming election in September, the first since the popular revolt that ousted in February president Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood ran its candidates as independents in previous elections to circumvent a ban on the group in place since 1954.
Mursi said at the new conference, held in the movement's new headquarters in the hilly Muqattam district, that the party was not theocratic. "It is not an Islamic party in the old understanding, it is not theocratic," said Mohammed al-Mursi, who was appointed head of the Freedom and Justice Party. "It is a civil party," he said at a press conference.