Egypt's Islamist clampdown is bid to fix vote: rights group

CAIRO: Egypt s shameless roundup of Islamists ahead of municipal elections is a bid to fix the vote and casts serious doubt on its legitimacy, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. Authorities have detained without charge 800 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including around 150 would-be candidates in the April 8 local election. the New York-based rights group said in a statement that the arrests, combined with ongoing military trials of Islamists, are part of a bid by President Hosni Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party to fix the elections. These ongoing mass arrests of opposition activists, on top of the military trial, are a shameless bid to fix the upcoming elections, said HRW s Middle East director Joe Stork. President Mubarak apparently believes that the outcome of the elections cannot be left up to voters. The government has not charged any of the 800 detained Muslim Brotherhood members with actual crimes, Stork said. It should release them now and allow fair elections. HRW said a military court s decision last week to postpone until after the election its verdict in the trial of 40 Brotherhood members on charges of financing a banned organisation was also part of a bid to fix the outcome. The defendants, who have been in jail for a year, include the Brotherhood s number three Khayrat Al-Shater. Traditionally controlled by the NDP, the municipal elections have gained importance since a 2005 constitutional amendment required independent presidential candidates to have the backing of local councilors. The ruling National Democratic Party heavily dominates the local councils, and President Mubarak seems determined to keep it that way, whatever the cost to his government s legitimacy, Stork said. The Brotherhood said the crackdown aims to block another election success after the 2005 parliamentary poll saw the group win a fifth of seats through members standing as independents. Muslim Brotherhood leaders have said their candidates would contest the elections from jail if necessary. -AFP