Mohamed Kamal Maraei, a parliamentary candidate in the Nile Delta governorate of Gharbiya running for the Conservative Party, which has been accused of having been formed by “remnants” of the former regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, has stated that the term commonly used against him – “remnant,” or feloul in Arabic – was unjustified.
The charge is due largely to the fact that Maraei served as a member of parliament for three consecutive terms for Mubarak’s now-defunct National Democratic Party (NDP).
At a Conservative Party conference on Tuesday night, Maraei denied oft-voiced charges that anyone with past NDP affiliations was by necessity corrupt, stressing that many members of Mubarak’s ruling party had, in fact, been loyal citizens.
Maraei went on to liken his past association with the NDP to the Prophet Muhammad’s famous alliance with the local Jewish population of the Arabian city of Medina, as is recounted in the Quran.
He added that his decision to run in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary polls represented an “attempt to carry through with the selfless act of serving the community.”
Maraei also suggested that the body mandated with drafting a new national constitution should not be limited to parliamentarians, but should also include representatives of civil society and professional syndicates.
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