CAIRO, November 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News
Agencies) Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters have
been rounded up by Egyptian police over the past two days ahead of the
third phase of parliamentary election, which kicks off Thursday, December
1, in a bid to slow the group's head start.
Mohamad Osama, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, said
that security forces arrested 576 people in the last two days, Reuters
reported Thursday, November 30.
He earlier said that 1,610 members of the group, which
is officially outlawed but enjoys soaring popularity, had been arrested in
the last two days alone.
Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a senior Brotherhood leader,
said most of those arrested were representatives or campaign managers for
some of the 49 Brotherhood candidates running in Thursday's
elections.
"The police are arresting them in their houses,
mosques, on the streets and confiscating computer hard drives," he told
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"These sweeps targeted possibly up to 2,000 people but
many brothers have started sleeping outside their homes to escape arrest
and take part in the elections."
The latest arrests were mostly in the provinces of
Dakahlia, Damietta, Sharkia and Kafr El-Sheikh in the Nile Delta and Sohag
in southern Egypt. All these areas will vote on Thursday.
The movement has already secured 76 seats -- five
times its tally in the outgoing parliament -- and may reach the 100 mark
after the final phase.
The Muslim Brotherhood's new-found political strength
will likely boost its case for legalization as a political party, although
the ruling party has consistently ruled out such a move.
In Wednesday's edition of Al-Hayat newspaper,
Brotherhood Assam al-Aryan suggested splitting the movement into a "civil"
political party and a religious-based charity network.
False Charges
Abul Futuh further said that police have leveled false
charges against Brotherhood members.
"They (security forces) are also bringing knives and
telling authorities they were found during the searches," he
said.
He added that another 250 supporters of the movement,
who were detained in similar raids ahead of the previous rounds of voting,
were still behind bars.
The Egyptian authorities routinely round up large
numbers of Brotherhood activists before elections to undermine the group's
attempts to get out the vote.
Hundreds of the movement's members were detained
during the drawn-out elections after it became clear from the first phase
of polling that the group was set to achieve major gains.
Brotherhood leaders and pundits in Egypt had predicted
that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), while in no danger of
losing its majority, would use strong-arm tactics to prevent the
Brotherhood from making further inroads in the third phase.
"The authorities have resorted to these detentions
because most of the means they have used in previous stages have not
worked," said deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater.
A Brotherhood statement on arrests in Dakahlia
province in the Nile Delta said the arrests were intended to thwart the
group's election preparations.
"The Interior Ministry alleges that these people of
social and political weight ... intended to corrupt the electoral process
and that swords, knives and clubs were found in their possession," it
said.
Thugs hired by President Hosni Mubarak's NDP and
police have intimidated judges and voters alike in the run-offs of the
second phase of election, which took place on November 26, forcing the
judiciary to cancel voting in some constituencies.
Last week, Egypt's Judges Union pressed for army
protection to shield its members against attacks by thugs in the current
parliamentary elections.
IslamOnline.net has revealed that Egyptian security
agents directed machete- and club-wielding gangs in attacks against voters
and supporters of opposition candidates in the second round of the
Egyptian parliamentary elections.
