More than 90 percent of Egyptian Islamist candidates have been prevented from registering for April local elections due to a crackdown by the regime, one of their leaders said on Thursday. Out of 5,159 hopefuls, only 438 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood have been able to register with hours to go before a Thursday deadline for registration, the group's deputy supreme guide Mohammed Habib told AFP.
Most of the candidates were blocked by officials from registering their candidacy, Habib conveyed, according to AFP. "Since mid-February, over 900 members have been arrested," he added.
A security official told the news agency that a maximum of 300 had been able to register their candidacy.
Hundreds of members have been rounded up over the past month, including senior leader Mahmud Ghozlan last week.
"The ruling party is completely incapable of legally confronting the Muslim Brotherhood. It therefore resorts to exceptional and ridiculous measures," Habib said. The Brotherhood claims the crackdown aims to block another election success after 2005 parliamentary polls in which the group won a fifth of seats through members standing as independents.
