Brothers protest interference
2008-03-09 21:01
Cairo - Thousands of members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated in two Egyptian cities on Sunday, protesting a wave of arrests that have targeted the group's leaders and potential candidates ahead of upcoming local elections, reports said.
At least 280 members of the group have been arrested since February in the run-up to April's local council elections, in what the organisation is calling an attempt to keep them from duplicating their 2005 electoral success that netted them a fifth of the seats in parliament.
At least 5 000 protesters, including 15 parliamentarians connected to the group, gathered in front of the local council building in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, 90km north of Cairo, and blocked the main street chanting anti-government slogans, a security official said.
The Brotherhood put the number of protesters at 10 000 and said that thousands of riot police surrounded the demonstrators and then dispersed them with water cannon.
Accused government of trying to stop them
The second demonstration took place in Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria, with 1 000 protesting in front of the local council and carrying banners reading "stop police intervention in local council elections," said the security official.
The movement's leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, accused the government in February of trying to stop them from running in the elections by arresting all their candidates. He vowed that the organisation would participate no matter what.
The local councils have long been dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party, though they previously had little actual power and their elections largely ignored.
The 4 500 municipal councils are responsible for services in a district, town and village level. Their importance increased with constitutional amendments passed in 2005 that require would-be candidates for president to obtain 250 recommendations from parliament and council members to run.
- SAPA