Cairo: Egypt's largest political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, held its first open internal election on Saturday since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, in an attempt to burnish its democratic credentials ahead of parliamentary polls later this year.
After decades spent underground because of an official ban, the public vote is also part of a concerted push by the Islamist group to show off its organization and dispel its reputation as a secretive and closed group. It looks poised to win big at the November polls, largely because of its well-organized political machine and social outreach programs.
Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie hailed Saturday's vote, which chose three new members to the group's executive board, saying "the open and transparent elections show the world that the Brotherhood works in the open, to restore Egypt's freedom and standing."
Speaking to the gathering at a luxury hotel in the Cairo neighborhood of Nasser City, he said the vote was one of the "fruits" of the Egypt's uprising.
Saturday's vote marked a clear shift from the past, when the Brotherhood was banned from public politics and its members and finances were targets of a constant security crackdown.
The Brotherhood went to great lengths to showcase their internal democratic practices, inviting cameras and journalists to the Saturday's event where more than 100 members of the group's policy making body cast ballots in transparent boxes.
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