The arrests bring to at least 80 the number of Brotherhood supporters detained since Thursday

Officials said 20 supporters were arrested in the province of Menoufiya on Saturday while hanging up banners of a Brotherhood candidate for the upper house of the parliament, the Shoura Council.
 
Police arrested 12 others in the Nile Delta city of Damanhoor and the coastal town of Ismailia, security officials and Brotherhood sources said.
 
The arrests bring to at least 80 the number of Brotherhood supporters detained since Thursday.
 
The group's official website also said police had raided stores owned by Brotherhood supporters in the province of Fayoum south of Cairo.

The Muslim Brotherhood operates openly despite an official ban since 1954.

Independents

Members running as independents won nearly one fifth of the seats in the influential lower house of the parliament in 2005.

The government says the organisation is illegal and regularly arrest its members.

The Brotherhood said it had registered 19 candidates for the June 11 elections elections.

Egyptians have largely ignored the Shoura Council polls in the past, but the next ballot will be the first since changes to the constitution gave some legislative powers to the house.

Analysts say the government wants to stop the Brotherhood now before it makes more electoral gains that could help it mount a serious threat to the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, in power since 1981.

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