Brotherhood to run in election
2008-02-20 19:16
Cairo - New arrests on Wednesday of 90 senior members and potential election candidates from the banned Muslim Brotherhood has not dissuaded Egypt's largest opposition movement from running in the upcoming local elections, the group's leader said.
The arrests were the latest in an ongoing crackdown by the authorities on the group.
An Egyptian security official said troops stormed the homes of senior Brotherhood members in five Egyptian provinces, including Cairo, at dawn. The detained were arrested on charges of joining a banned group in an attempt to revive its activities, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
"They arrested every single person who seemed to them to be a potential candidate," said Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the Brotherhood leader.
The Brotherhood posted the names of the arrested on its website, saying the detentions sought to prevent the group from running in the April 8 city council elections.
But Akef said the Brotherhood will participate in the election despite the crackdown. "It's an obligation from God to serve the people," he told The Associated Press.
Long ignored and left to the ruling National Democratic party, municipal elections have gained in importance following the 2005 constitutional amendments in the electoral law requiring parties to hold a certain number of municipal seats if they want to field a presidential candidate.
The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 but has been officially banned since 1954. It is Egypt's largest opposition group and its lawmakers, although they run as independents, hold more than a fifth of the seats in parliament's 454-member lower house.
The group stunned the government by scoring large victories in the 2005 parliamentary elections, and as a result, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree two years ago delaying the provincial elections, supposed to be in April 2006.
"These are political detentions aimed at influencing the group's decision to participate in the elections," senior Brotherhood member Essam el-Erian said. "They are arresting 'popular symbols' of the group in each province."
Wednesday's arrests bring to over 600 the number of Muslim Brotherhood members detained since the beginning of the year. Apart from the Cairo province, the arrests took place in southern Sohag, the Nile Delta province of Qalyoubiya, in Giza and in Assuit.
On Monday, police detained 13 university students affiliated with the Brotherhood in the coastal city of Alexandria as they collected money at the campus for the Brotherhood and to help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The students were charged with belonging to a banned group and collecting money without permission. On Sunday, police rounded-up 51 members of the group across three provinces in Egypt.
- AP