Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood announced on Saturday it would back its deputy leader Khairat al-Shater for president

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood announced on Saturday it would back its deputy leader Khairat al-Shater for president.

The Brotherhood said it changed tack after reviewing other candidates in the race and after parliament, where its Freedom and Justice Party controls the biggest bloc, was unable to meet “the demands of the revolution”.

"We have witnessed obstacles standing in the way of parliament to take decisions to achieve the demands of the revolution," said Mohamed Morsy, head of the Freedom and Justice Party. "We have therefore chosen the path of the presidency not because we are greedy for power but because we have a majority in parliament which is unable to fulfill its duties in parliament," he said announcing the decision to back Shater.

Shater, 61, one of the group's three deputy leaders and a businessman who runs a computer firm, will be competing against several other candidates who have declared their plans to run.