(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "The military men ruling Egypt have opened the way for foreign interference and activity of Egyptian extremists and therefore abundant crimes have been committed against the Egyptian nation by certain internal political groups," Ahmad Rassem al-Nafis told us on Wednesday.
He described the weakness shown by the SCAF in preventing the foreign meddling in Cairo's internal affairs, specially in the presidential election, as dangerous, and said it can have dire consequences for Egypt's post-revolution political process.
Nafis lamented that while a number of presidential candidates in Egypt own US and Qatari passports, the SCAF has prevented certain other candidates from running in the election for void excuses.
Yesterday, a senior Egyptian legislator had also condemned the attempts made by the SCAF to portray Islamists as a weak stream in the presidential election in a bid to manipulate election results.
Yasri al-Taeelab, who is also a member of Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) party in the Egyptian parliament, told us on Tuesday that the SCAF intends to portray Islamists as a weak political current in a bid to dissuade people from voting in their favor.
Taeelab described the military council as the enemy of the majority-Islamist parliament, and said Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri's government has also embarked on limiting the parliament's mandates to show it weak.
Yet, he warned the SCAF to stay away from stronger moves in this regard, specially election fraud, and stressed, "People don't allow the military council to manipulate the election results."
He underlined that if people feel suspicious about the results of election, they will gather at al-Tahrir Square and will stage a sit-in there until toppling the military council.
Egypt's historic presidential election started Wednesday, a monumental achievement for those who worked to topple longtime leader Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago.
Roughly a dozen candidates are running in the race, which is considered the nation's first free and fair presidential election in modern history.
Among the candidates vying for presidency are Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party; Amre Moussa, who served as foreign minister under Mubarak and headed the Arab League; Abdelmonen Abol Fotoh, a moderate Islamist running as a respected independent; Ahmed Shafik, who was Mubarak's last prime minister; and Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist dark-horse contender.
If a single candidate fails to garner more than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held mid-June. The country's military rulers have pledged to hand over executive power to a civilian government by the end of next month.
The vote comes nearly 16 months after the popular uprising that brought down Mubarak in February 2011.
Distrust and anger, particularly against the military's power in Egyptian governmental affairs, still inspire protests, some of which have been marked by deadly clashes.
Protesters are upset at what they see as the slow pace of reform since Mubarak's ouster. Some are also concerned that the country's military leadership is delaying the transition to civilian rule.
In January, two Islamist parties won about 70% of the seats in the lower house of parliament in the first elections for an elected governing body in the post-Mubarak era.
The Freedom and Justice Party won 235 seats and the conservative al-Nour party gained 121 seats in the People's Assembly, according to final results. The assembly consists of 498 elected members, and the rest of the seats were divided among other parties.
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