CAIRO, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement, faces political hurdles in 2011 after failing to land a seat in recent elections, analysts said.
Only 14 opposition candidates managed to take seats on the 508-seat Parliament, wiping Muslim Brotherhood candidates off the political map in an early December vote. The Muslim Brotherhood pulled out of a second round of voting because it said the election was fixed.
Mokhtar Mough, whom Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm identifies as a leader of a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood that favored an early political boycott, said the opposition movement should reflect on its strategy after the election.
"The Muslim Brotherhood should endorse a strategy of a national civil reform group," he said. "In other words, the group's struggle should revolve around national issues rather than stay limited to the group's main concern with self-protection".
The main political movement ignored calls for a boycott, saying the best way to challenge the ruling National Democratic Party was to participate at the polls.
Hossam Taman, an Egyptian author and expert on Islamist movements, told the Egyptian newspaper that the opposition group needed to embrace internal reform.
"Without a comprehensive revision, the Muslim Brotherhood will remain a burden and an obstacle to political reform in Egypt," he was quoted as saying. UPI
