Egyptian security arrested 65 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday while they were hanging election posters in the city of Alexandria ahead of next month's parliamentary vote, police said. Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker and candidate Hussein Ibrahim said the campaigners were detained while hanging posters for one of the group's four female candidates.
On his part, a security official said the workers violated an election law banning the use of religious slogans.
Hussein said the posters contained the phrases "God is great" and "Praise be to God."
Meanwhile, the country's largest liberal opposition party Wafd threatened on Tuesday to boycott the parliamentary election after state television refused to air its political advertisements. A spokesman for the party, Mohammed Sherdi, said, according to AFP, Wafd would boycott the election "if the government's obstinacy towards the Wafd party and the refusal of its right to air political advertisements continues."
Wafd was the first to announce it would contest the November election after former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei called for a boycott.
