Just like Algeria previously Egypt don't do free and fair election and detains 70 opposition members

Egypt detains 70 opposition members

Tue Oct 26, 2010

Muslim Brotherhood lawmakers protest against Egypt's continued state of emergency.

Security forces in Egypt have detained at least 70 campaigners of the Muslim Brotherhood ahead of the upcoming November parliamentary elections.

The arrests were made as campaigners were putting up posters for one of the group's candidates. 

"Police arrested around 70 Brotherhood members at dawn as they were hanging posters for a woman candidate in various parts of the Alexandria governorate," AFP quoted a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood as saying. 

Police say they have violated the election regulations which ban the use of religious slogans. 

The latest arrests bring to 260 the number of Brotherhood supporters detained over the past 10 days. 

A total of 508 seats are up for grabs in the November elections. 

The Muslim Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in the last elections in 2005 -- despite a police crackdown. 

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has announced November 28 as the date for the country's much-anticipated parliamentary elections. 

The announcement comes as Cairo continues to maintain pressure to silence critics of the government in the media and elsewhere in the run-up to the vote. 

Despite its setback, the Muslim Brotherhood has defended its decision to field candidates. 

"We participate for Egypt's sake," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Essam el-Erian said in mid October. 

"Participation is the best way to expose the corruption of the regime." 

JR/HGH/MMN