Cairo: Egypt's controversial presidential contender Omar Sulaiman, who was Hosni Mubarak's deputy for few days, has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of involvement in subversive acts during a popular revolt that topped the former president.
"They torched police stations and several vital facilities," Sulaiman added at a launch of his presidential campaign.
Sulaiman, the Brotherhood's nemesis, told his supporters at a rally in Cairo late Thursday that he had decided to run for president to head off the creation of an Islamist state in Egypt.
"The Brotherhood wants to seize the pinnacle of power and control all state institutions to turn Egypt into a religious state," he was quoted by the state-run newspaper Al Ahram as saying.
Banned and oppressed under Mubarak, the Brotherhood controls both houses of the Egyptian parliament. On Thursday, the parliament passed an amended law barring Sulaiman and other former officials who held senior posts in the Mubarak regime's last 10 years from standing for president. The ban also applies to senior officials in Mubarak's now-disbanded National Democratic Party.
The law, which the government says is unconstitutional, has to be endorsed by the military rulers to become effective.
"This law harms the image of Egypt and its parliament and violates citizens' political rights," commented Sulaiman, a former intelligence service. "This law will cripple the country, but I won't back down."
Thousands of Egyptians, mainly Islamists, on Friday rallied to Tahrir Square in central Cairo to demand that Mubarak's loyalists be barred from holding public offices.
The demonstrators denounced Sulaiman's presidential bid, calling for him to be sent to prison.
More than 20 people, including several Islamists, are competing in the May 23-24 presidential elections, Egypt's first since Mubarak was ousted in February last year.
