"Crackdown prevents Brotherhood repeating success"

Brotherhood's deputy leader Habib said the group relied on an army of volunteers and contributions of its members to finance activities and spent much less money than its rivals on election campaigns.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest opposition group, believes a government crackdown means it cannot quickly repeat the success it had in the last parliamentary elections.

Fresh elections are not due before 2010, but the Brotherhood's deputy leader, Mohamed Habib, told Reuters on Thursday election rigging and recent steps to prevent its members seeking elected office were bad omens for the future.

"Of course we will not achieve what we achieved in 2005," Habib said in an interview at the group's Cairo headquarters. "The reading of the current political scene says so, unless something unexpected happens." Read more ...

Source: World Bulletin