Egypt police detain dozens of Islamists before vote

Posted 02 21 2008 2:37AM

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police detained dozens ofmembers of the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, expanding acrackdown on the country's strongest opposition group ahead oflocal elections in April.

The Islamist group, which holds one fifth of the seats inparliament, poses the most serious challenge to the rulingNational Democratic Party (NDP) in the April 8 elections forlocal councils which the NDP has dominated for years.

The Brotherhood said police rounded up 101 members.Security officials put the number at 85.

The raids brought to at least 180 the number of Brotherhoodmembers taken into custody in the last week. More than 500 intotal are now in detention.

"Anyone they believe could be a candidate they detain,"Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef said in an interview withthe Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel.

"The recent arrests are all linked to the local elections,"senior Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian told Reuters. "This isas clear as sunshine."

The local council elections were postponed for two years in2006 after the Brotherhood performed better than expected inthe parliamentary elections of 2005.

Akef said the Brotherhood would take part in the electionsdespite the campaign of arrests. "We call on all the people totake part, every honorable person who wants to serve thisnation," he told Al Jazeera.

Erian said the aim of fielding candidates would be mainlyto make the group's presence felt, rather than to win seats.

"We know the election will be rigged," he said. TheBrotherhood and other opposition parties accuse the ruling NDPof vote rigging. The party denies this.

Erian said most of those rounded up in recent days wereeither candidates in previous elections or members who couldrun campaigns. The Brotherhood's official Web site(ikhwanonline.com) listed doctors, teachers, civil servants anduniversity professors among Wednesday's detainees.

LESS INFLUENCE

The councils have much less influence than in many othercountries because the central government continues to appointpowerful provincial governors, mostly ex-generals from thepolice or the armed forces.

But seats in the local council could be important at thenational level in future years if an independent politicianwants to challenge the ruling party for the presidency.

Under a constitutional amendment approved in 2005,independent candidates for the presidency need endorsementsfrom 65 elected members of the lower house of parliament, 25elected members of the upper house and 140 members of localcouncils.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which the authorities refuse torecognize as a political party, can already meet the firstrequirement and could meet the third if the local elections inApril are free and fair. But the movement now has no seats inthe upper house of parliament, known as the Shura Council.

"This election is important to the Brotherhood because ...the Brotherhood is a grassroots group that depends oninteracting with people," said political analyst Mohamed Salah.

"The local councils are about peoples' daily lives: pavingroads, providing electricity and utilities," he added.

In the 2002 local council elections more than 49,000 seatswere at stake across the country of 75 million people. Atprovincial level there were 3,230 seats.

(Writing by Alaa Shahine; editing by Sami Aboudi)