Senior leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday that the influential Islamist movement would not seek a majority in parliament when elections are held later in 2011.
The opposition group, which says it wants to build an Islamic state through peaceful means, was seen as the government's most powerful foe until a popular revolt forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign on February 11.
"We do not aspire for a majority in the upcoming parliament, and this is a message to all political parties," said Essam al-Erian, a member of the group's politburo. "This is not the time for competition."
Mahmud Ezzat, the group's second in command, said the group would not contest every parliamentary seat in an election set to take place later this year before the military hands power to a civillian government.
"We will not try," he said, when asked if the the group would run candidates for each and every seat. The Brotherhood had previously also said it would not field a candidate in the subsequent presidential election.
The Islamists have contested about 30 percent of parliamentary seats in past elections, which were rigged to favour the ruling National Democratic Party.
They won a fifth of seats in the 2005 election but boycotted run-offs in the poll in November 2010 after failing to win a single seat in the first round. Rights groups widely denounced the election as fraudulent.
Some in the West had feared that the revolt that brought down Mubarak, despite being spearheaded by secular youths, would empower the Islamists, who oppose Israel and are critical of US policies in the region.
But Ezzat insists that the Islamists are not seeking power.
"People can't imagine that maybe someone would trade power for the general interest. We used to get jailed and were denied seeing our children, only for the general interest. We did not do this for power," he said.
The group has a representative — a lawyer and former lawmaker — on an eight-member panel appointed by the military, which assumed power after Mubarak's resignation, to revise the constitution ahead of the elections.
The current constitution bans parties based on religion and class, but the Islamists have said they are interested in creating an official political party affiliated with their movement.