As a result, the Muslim Brotherhood has been under pressure from Arab
states to withdraw from politics.
In Egypt, security forces arrested much of the Brotherhood leadership
ahead of parliamentary elections on Nov. 28, Middle East Newsline reported. As a result, the Brotherhood,
which has charged fraud, failed to win one seat in the first round of
elections, where the turnout reached between 12 to 25 percent. A runoff was
scheduled on Dec. 5.
"What happened on Sunday [Nov. 28] was catastrophic," Brotherhood
parliamentary whip Saad Al Katatni said. "According to our survey, polling
stations in which vote rigging took place had a 97 percent turnout."
In 2005, the Brotherhood captured 20 percent of parliamentary seats. In
the latest elections, the ruling National Democratic Party said it won
two-thirds of the vote.
"Either that the [NDP] party is so huge that it will be impossible to
beat in any election, and this is an unbelievable phenomenon, or that the
ruling party has practiced, as usual, a vast fraud," Egyptian analyst Hassan
Nafa wrote in the independent daily Al Masri Al Yom.
In Jordan, the Hashemite regime has restricted the Brotherhood in an
effort to neutralize any Islamic opposition. In November, the Brotherhood-aligned
Islamic Action Front boycotted parliamentary elections amid complaints of a
new election law that was termed discriminatory.
Another opposition group, Islamist Centrist Party, won only one seat in
the elections. Party leaders said they were deliberating a proposal to
disband in protest of what they deemed a rigged election.
"We want to send a message of protest against the political situation in
the country following the disappointing parliamentary elections," the
party's political chief, Marwan Fawri, said.
Still, Islamist sources said the Brotherhood, despite electoral
restrictions, would continue to recruit throughout Egypt, Jordan and other
Arab states. They said the withdrawal of the Brotherhood from parliament
could make it more difficult for Arab regimes to monitor the Islamic
opposition.
"It will transfer the political life from under the dome of parliament
to the street," Egyptian Human Rights Committee director Hafez Abu Saida
said. "It will also reinforce the perception of people that it is useless to
participate in elections."
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