Egypt's Muslim brotherhood vote reveals rifts

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Monday elected a new executive bureau, but the vote revealed serious internal divisions that threaten to weaken the country's largest opposition group.

Some senior members said the elections were illegitimate because they violated the Brotherhood's internal rules. Most members of the group's shura, the council responsible for mapping policies, nonetheless agreed to go ahead.

"The opinion of the majority was that the elections to the guidance bureau be carried out now," outgoing leader Mahdi Akef said in a statement on the Brotherhood's website.

The results signaled an end to the reformist trend within the Brotherhood, political analyst Khalil el-Anani said.

"These results indicate an internal coup d'etat against the reformist camp of the Brotherhood," he told Reuters. "Most of the new members are over 50 years old and there is no representation of Brotherhood's youth."

The group's number two Mohammed Habib and reformist Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh were not among the new 16-member executive bureau known as Guidance Bureau, according to results published in a statement and obtained by AFP.

The list is made up of "the leaders of the conservative trend," Amr Shoubaky, an analyst with the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told AFP.

These results indicate an internal coup d'etat against the reformist camp of the Brotherhood. Most of the new members are over 50 years old and there is no representation of Brotherhood's youth.

Political analyst Khalil el-Anani

Divisions

Habib told the independent daily al-Shorouk on Sunday that the group was split between those who wanted the Brotherhood to become more active in the country's political life, and those who wanted to maintain the status quo.

The divisions are likely to "lessen the brotherhood's political weight and weaken its participation in the 2010 parliamentary elections," Shoubaky says.

The wing now dominating the movement is more focused on the religious aspects and is not in touch with the political reality on the ground, he said.

Whereas "Habib and Abul Futuh played a very important role in the last legislative elections," he continued.

Sidelining Habib and Abul Futuh "is a serious coup for the reformist group within the movement which seeks more openness and participation with other opposition groups," Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst specializing in Islamist movements told AFP.

The divisions are the most serious challenge faced by the Brotherhood since 1954, the last time such rifts inside the movement were public, Rashwan said.

Muslim Brotherhood members are expected to elect within days a Supreme Guide to replace Mohammed Mahdi Akef who will step down when his term ends in January.

The group is officially banned but is left to operate relatively openly though its members are subject to periodic crackdowns.

In 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood gained a surprising 20 percent of the seats in parliament by fielding candidates as "independents."

(Sidelining Habib and Abul Futuh) is a serious coup for the reformist group within the movement which seeks more openness and participation with other opposition groups

Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst specializing in Islamist movements