Posters attacking the Muslim Brotherhood and describing them as violent were seen displayed in some governorates only hours before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, eyewitnesses said.
Most of these posters were seen in Alexandria, Suez, and Ismailia, where the Brotherhood is particularly active.
In Alexandria's Ramleh constituency, posters read: "Remember their black history" and "No to the Brotherhood, they preach blind compliance or expulsion". The posters carried the signature "Youth Against Oppression".
In Ismailia, the birthplace of the Brotherhood and one of its current strongholds, the same posters were distributed in the larger constituencies.
In Suez, the same posters were put up right under the Brotherhood's publicity posters.
The posters were predominantly black in color and displayed next to the publicity posters of the Brotherhood and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
The NDP on Thursday launched a wide-scale publicity campaign accusing the Brotherhood of violating the constitution and working to transform Egypt into a religious state.
The campaign also comes in the wake of an announcement by the NDP that it has filed a complaint with the Attorney General Office, in a step that could lead to Brotherhood candidates’ being cancelled after they are voted into parliament.
The current Brotherhood candidate for the Ramleh constituency, Sobhy Saleh, meanwhile, declined to accuse any one entity of putting up those posters.
"I haven't seen them and they are of no concern to me," he said. "This in not an election. This is some sad game and these are black days for the Egyptian people."
The NDP’s secretary in Alexandria, Saeed al-Daqqaq, said the NDP has nothing to do with the posters in question.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
