MANSOURA - Police Sunday seven members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, one day after the group announced it would field candidates in the parliamentary elections.
"The security forces detained seven members of the Brotherhood in dawn raids, who were actively preparing for the upcoming polls," a Muslim Brotherhood source told Reuters.
He added that the police also confiscated laptops, books and other items belonging to the detainees.
The group's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie announced on Saturday that the Brotherhood, officially banned since 1954, would field around 150 candidates in the elections of the 508-strong legislature.
The Kefaya opposition group and Mohamed ElBaradei, the former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, slammed the Brotherhood's plans to participate in the polls, claiming that this would add legality to vote rigging.
"Taking part in polls that will be rigged means nothing less than having a hand in this illegal process, which is against the people's will," said Kefaya's coordinator Abdel Halim Qandil.
He added that the political parties and groups which decided to boycott the polls would hold a meeting next Saturday.
ElBaradei wrote a message on Twitter, asking: " Should we boycott the rigging or be part of it?”
The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most influential opposition group, is officially banned in Egypt. However, in the previous parliamentary elections held in 2005, Brotherhood members, running as independents, won 88 seats, one-fifth of the legislature.
