Egyptian police have detained over 70 people in Alexandria as they were putting up posters in support of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Speaking about the detention a police official said the posters breached a law against religious insignia for election campaign purposes. A spokesperson for MB counteracted the statement saying the posters for Egypt's governing party contained quotes from Koran yet remained untouched.
The MB is the biggest opposition movement in Egypt and has been banned since 1954. However, it won 20 per cent of the seats in parliament in 2005 by fielding candidates as independents. The group has since faced heavy censorship by the Egyptian government. MB's MP Hussein Ibrahim said the posters used commonplace terms including "God is great" and "Praise be to God" rather than slogans associated exclusively with the Islamist group or direct quotes from the Koran.
"This is the beginning of a blatant election fraud since the ruling party candidates' posters were left untouched although they contained full verses of the Koran," said Ibrahim.
Source: BBC News
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