Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) members of parliament refuse to meet Egypt's Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri in a meeting scheduled for Sunday, according to a statement published by the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood late on Saturday.
The MPs, who represent about 50 per cent of both the upper and lower house, said in their statement that the Cairo governor invited them and other members of parliament to meet with El-Ganzouri in his office on Sunday at noon, but they turned down the invitation.
"This is the first time that the PM holds a meeting with all MPs to discuss something that concerns the [Cairo] governorate," reads the statement, "and this made us doubt the real reasons behind the meeting."
The statement continues on to explain that the FJP sees this invitation as an icebreaker between parliament and El-Ganzouri's government, but that it is being used to prove to the public that all accusations from the [FJP] representatives aren't sincere and that they actually have no objection in dealing with the current government.
As is customary, the government (lead by El-Ganzouri) laid out their policies this year before parliament, who largely objected. The parliament is restless with accusations that the government has not done a good job in leading the country through the transitional period post-Mubarak.
"The government wants to make it seem that parliament's rejection of the government's statement and the steps taken towards a no confidence vote are all meaningless," says the FJP parliamentary bloc.
"We will proceed to take all required measures to withdraw trust from this government," affirmed the statement.
The rejection by Egypt's parliament (including all its 19 committees) to the government's statement last week escalated an already growing crisis between the FJP and other political parties on the one side, and El-Ganzouri's military-backed government on the other.
Both the Muslim Brotherhood and it political arm, the FJP, announced in a press conference Saturday night that they will nominate a candidate to run in the presidential elections.
Previously, the Muslim Brotherhood (and by default the FJP) had stated they would not field a presidential candidate. This was taken as a move to not sound alarm bells of Islamists bullying their way into government. However, the Brotherhood now claims that the threats by Egypt's ruling military council to disband parliament simply because they pushed for a vote of no confidence against El-Ganzouri's government is forcing the FJP to shore up strength by fielding a presidential candidate.
Brotherhood number two Khairat El-Shater is slated to start campaigning as the FJP candidate.
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