Politician Amr Moussa (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt's Salafist Nour Party issued a statement Saturday in response to former presidential candidate Amr Mousa's rejection of their participation in an electoral alliance he is seeking to build.
"Electoral alliances based on differentiation, polarisation and marginalisation and that don't advance Egypt's interest over partisan interests die in their cradles, their fate will be to fail," a statement by Nour Party Secretary General Galal Morra read.
Moussa, who led the amending committee that drafted Egypt's 2014 Constitution had said the electoral coalition he is forming, the Alliance of the Egyptian Nation, won't include the Nour Party.
"The Nour Party does not use the rhetoric of polarity, marginalisation and exclusion," Morra said, insisting his party unites the Egyptian people.
Moussa's alliance includes the Conference Party, which he founded, the liberal Wafd Party, the leftist Tagammu Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Reform and Development Party, the Geel (Generation) Party and the Conservative Party. The alliance hasn't been formally announced yet as talks with other groups are still ongoing.
Moussa also said the alliance won't include any former members of the now-defunct Hosni Mubarak era National Democratic Party.
Salah Abdel-Maabood, a member of Nour Party's Higher Committee, told Al-Ahram's Arabic news website Friday the party didn't request to join the alliance.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a presidential decree in July tasking the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) with beginning the necessary procedures for holding parliamentary elections as stipulated by the constitution.
Political analysts expect parliamentary elections to be held at the end of October.
Short link: