Egypt seizes eight more Muslim Brothers before poll

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- Egyptian police have detained eight more suspected members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood ahead of parliamentary polls, security sources said on Tuesday.

They said prosecutors in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria had jailed the eight, most of them engineers, on Monday for 15 days pending investigations. They were accused of belonging to a banned group and trying to spread its ideas.

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"These are redundant accusations. Nobody can connect us to violent harmful acts, by word or deed," Brotherhood spokesman Maamoun Hodeibi told Reuters. More than 200 alleged Brotherhood members have been detained in recent months in a crackdown Hodeibi said was designed to stop members from running for parliament or campaigning in the general elections set for October and November.

He described official assurances that the elections would be free and fair as "mere talk."

On Sunday, police detained two election aides of Jihan al-Halafawi, the first woman Islamist to run for parliament.

Hodeibi said election regulations required candidates to appoint two representatives at each polling center. "Where can we get them from if they are arrested?" he asked.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and most influential Islamist group, has been banned since 1954, but has enjoyed intermittent periods of official tolerance. It informally nominates and supports candidates running as independents.

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