CAIRO — The authorities in Egypt arrested 70 members of the outlawed opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday as they were putting up election posters ahead of November polls, the group and security sources said.
"Police arrested around 70 Brotherhood members at dawn as they were hanging posters for a woman candidate in various parts of the Alexandria governorate," Islamist MP Hussein Ibrahim told AFP.
A security official said 70 Brotherhood members were rounded up in and around the northern coastal city because the posters bore religious slogans in violation of the electoral law.
Ibrahim, who will be standing for re-election in the November 28 parliamentary poll, said the posters carried the Koranic phrase "Allahu akbar" (God is greater).
But he denied accusations that the traditional Brotherhood slogan -- "Islam is the solution" -- featured on the posters.
"The streets of Alexandria are rife with campaign posters for candidates from the National Democratic Party which carry Koranic verses," Ibrahim said of the ruling party of President Hosni Mubarak.
The latest arrests bring to 260 the number of Brotherhood supporters who have been detained over the past 10 days, the security official said. Most of them have now been released.
A total of 508 seats are up for election in the legislature, which is currently dominated by the National Democratic Party. Another 10 seats are presidential appointees.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which fields candidates as independents to get round a ban on religious parties, won a fifth of the seats in the last election in 2005, despite a police crackdown.
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