ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said on Monday police had detained 28 of its members in Alexandria during chamber of commerce elections. The detainees were merchants affiliated with the officially banned opposition group, said Hamdi Hassan, official spokesman for the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc. They were arrested on Sunday. The Brotherhood said security forces had stopped its supporters from voting in the elections in Alexandria to guarantee victory for government-backed candidates, who won the ballot with a large majority.Hassan said the merchants face charges of obstructing the elections. “What obstructed the elections were the government and the security forces since they stopped merchants and candidates from entering the chamber,” he told Reuters.
The police also arrested the Brotherhood’s four-man media team for the elections on Saturday. “Security means are the only means to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood because they (the state) consider the group banned and so they can’t deal with us politically,” said Ali Abdel-Fattah, a senior Brotherhood figure in Alexandria.