Brotherhood denies reports

2009-10-19 18:25

Cairo - The deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denied reports on Monday that Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdi Akef has quit in a row with conservatives in the leading opposition group.

Egyptian dailies reported that Akef, who had been due to stay on as the movement's supreme guide until next year, resigned on Sunday after conservatives blocked the appointment of a senior reformist to the politburo.

"Mohammed Mahdi Akef is still the supreme guide and did not submit his resignation as mentioned by some of the media," deputy leader Mohammed Habib said in a statement on the group's website.

A second statement posted in the name of the Brotherhood as a whole also denied that Akef had quit and said that "the members of the supreme guide's office and the group's leadership denounce the reports of resignation."

The furore came after weeks of speculation that conservatives led by the Islamist group's secretary general, Mahmud Izzat, were blocking the appointment to its politburo of Essam al-Erian, a leading reformer who spent five years in jail for Brotherhood membership.

A deep rift

Erian refused to comment on the row.

A journalist associated with the reformers, Abdel Moneim Mahmud, disputed Habib's account insisting Akef had indeed resigned.

He said the supreme guide might have since been pressured into reversing his decision because his departure would have created a deep rift within the group.

"Akef is a balanced man. He tried to reconcile different points of view. Without him, there will be an explosion in the Brotherhood," Mahmud said.

Akef said earlier this year that he would step down when his term expires early next year. The 81-year-old was elected leader in 2004 and oversaw the Brotherhood's surprise parliamentary election gains a year later.

Fielding candidates as independents to get round the ban in force against it since 1954, the Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in parliament.

- SAPA