Egypt bans Brotherhood members from running in elections

April 19 Xinhua

An Egyptian court banned members of the Muslim Brotherhood from running in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, the official MENA news agency reported.

An anti-Brotherhood group, the Popular Front, filed a lawsuit against “Brotherhoodization of Egypt,” prompting the judge to order the country's election commission to decline any candidacy requests from Brotherhood members. The verdict comes a few weeks before the country's May presidential elections, the first since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi.

The Muslim Brotherhood, from which the ousted Islamist president hailed, is currently blacklisted by the interim government as “a terrorist organization.” Following Morsi's removal by the military last July, security forces have launched a massive crackdown on his loyalists.

Last August, the security disbanded two major pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza, which left around 1,000 dead and thousands more detained.

Morsi's supporters have been holding continual anti-government protests, which often end in confrontations with security forces. Extremist Islamist groups supporting Morsi have also launched a series of bomb attacks against police and military staff and facilities in Sinai Peninsula, the capital Cairo and different areas across Egypt.