Islamic parties pledge to boycott Egypt's election

A number of Islamic parties in Egypt have pledged alliance to boycott the country’s upcoming presidential election that they see as a 'comic play' to legitimate a July coup that toppled their first democratically-elected president. The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, led by the Muslim Brotherhood movement, issued a statement on Sunday in which they described the vote as "a farce" meant to appoint "the coup orchestrator" president, Al-Alam reported on Monday. The alliance also said it would not recognize the election monitoring planned by "Western supporters of the coup". They say the coup leaders have "committed crimes that exceed those committed by the Zionist Gang in Palestine". The group had earlier boycotted a vote on the new constitution in January. The supporters of the group on Saturday held protests against the presidential candidacy of the former head of the armed forces, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Sisi, who is the presumed front-runner in the presidential race, has called for a high turnout in the May 26-27 election. Leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi is the only candidate running against Sisi. Sisi suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament following the July 2013 ouster of Egypt’s first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi. Sisi is also accused of leading a deadly crackdown against the supporters of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to human rights groups, at least 1,400 people have been killed in the political turmoil since Morsi’s ouster, "most of them due to excessive force used by security forces".