Recriminations continue between former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy, days before the two are set to compete in a runoff election. At a press conference Sunday Shafiq accused the Brotherhood of “corrupting the electoral process through voter intimidation and creating an atmosphere of lies.” Shafiq said the Brotherhood is “chasing after power” and called on its members to “refrain from tampering, and trading in religion.” “I am an independent candidate backed by no party or group,” Shafiq said. “The Muslim Brotherhood candidate is backed by his group and supported by an undeclared organization.” The Brotherhood meanwhile described Shafiq's recent accusations that the group was involved in the killing of demonstrators during the “Battle of the Camel” last February during the uprising as “black propaganda.” “Everybody knows that the leaders of the dissolved National [Democratic] Party are the ones who instigated thugs, horse and camel riders, and snipers to break into Tahrir Square, killing protesters and evacuating the square to abort the revolution,” the group said. “Shafiq is one of the figures of this dissolved party and was prime minister at the time of the battle, or massacre, but he did not take any action to prevent or stop it,” the Brotherhood said. “He went out to the people on satellite channels, apologizing for it and promising that it wouldn't happen again. Sniping and killing took place again several times, and all this condemns him and his interior minister [at the time], Major General Mahmoud Wagdy, for committing the same things that convicted the former president and his interior minister.” “Shafiq's government agencies, security or intelligence, seized the tapes from cameras in Tahrir Square and blurred the images that exposed killers and criminals. Shafiq did not approach the prosecutor with a testimony for nearly a year after the incident,” the Brotherhood added. The Brotherhood described Shafiq's words as expressing “shameless slander, great failure and the desire to repudiate this heinous crime against people and the revolution, and an attempt to stick [the crime] on revolutionaries, victims and political rivals.” Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
