Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood will use peaceful methods to build a democratic political system despite "repression" by elements of the old regime, the Islamist group's deputy leader, Khairat El Shater, told French newspaper Le Figaro Thursday.
The country is facing a "new wave of repression and we are ready to fight it and face all possibilities," El-Shater said. "This doesn’t scare us, and will not stop us carrying out our peaceful efforts to build a modern democratic system, no matter what the cost."
"We are determined to use all the methods at our disposal," he added. "Especially peaceful public pressure and legal challenges, and we also depend on international support in order to fight repression [by elements of the old regime]. We reject violence and armed conflict as occurred in Yemen, Libya and Syria."
Regarding the ruling junta's recent changes to the temporary constitution, which reduced the powers of the incoming president, El-Shater said, "the revolution aims for an elected democratic authority with full transparency... and the military should hand over power by 30 June."
El-Shater went on to question the timing of rumours surrounding former president Hosni Mubarak's death.
"The rumours about the health of Mubarak are paving the way for forging the presidential elections in favour of Ahmed Shafiq [who is seen as the 'military's man' by many observers]."
"According to our representatives at polling stations, and judges who supervised and monitored the process, Mohamed Mursi [the Brotherhood's candidate], won the election by around one million votes. However, we've witnessed a rumour campaign and false news that aims to raise doubts about the result and this may indicate ballot rigging in favour of Shafiq."
In a situation of such uncertainty, nobody can predict the presidential election result, El-Shater added.
The electoral commission announced on Wednesday evening that it would require extra time to examine appeals filed by both candidates. The result was scheduled to be released on Thursday.
