Egypt: El Nour declines to participate in new gov't

Egypt's main Salafite party, El Nour (The Light), declined to participate in acting Premier Hisham Kandil's new government, party spokesperson Younes Makhyoun made known in a communique issued on Thursday. Its list of candidates to official posts, which included university professors and other ''competent'' figures, was ignored, with the sole exception of Gamal Alam al-Dine, who was offered the environmental ministry, the communique said. El Nour, which garnered 25% of votes in Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections, denounced the ''lack of consultation'' in Kandil's nomination process, adding that if the new government is to be a coalition one, ''it should have taken our relative weight into consideration.'' ''We will be an examplary opposition in Egypt,'' the communique said, and went on to wish the government well in all its endeavors. Kandil's new cabinet should be announced today.