Muslim Brotherhood protests against Egypt gov't before local elections

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Thousands of members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated in two Egyptian cities Sunday, protesting a wave of arrests that have targeted the group's leaders and potential candidates ahead of upcoming local elections, police and the movement said. At least 280 members of the group have been arrested since February, in the run-up to April's local council elections, in what the organization is calling an attempt to keep them from duplicating their 2005 electoral success that netted them a fifth of the seats in the parliament. At least 5,000 protesters, including 15 parliamentarians connected to the group, gathered in front of the local council building in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, 90 kilometers north of Cairo, and blocked the main street chanting anti-government slogans, a security official said on the customary condition of anonymity.