Presidential candidates Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh and Ahmed Shafiq on Tuesday exchanged accusations of assaulting supporters and tearing down campaign banners.
Abouel Fotouh’s campaign said in a statement that Shafiq’s campaign hired men from the dissolved National Democratic Party who beat campaigners in Daqahlia on 13 May while they were peacefully protesting Shafiq’s visit, and threatened to kill them if they did not stop their campaign.
It added that the next day, ten of those men assaulted Abouel Fotouh’s supporters while they were meeting in a shop owned by a fellow supporter. The men destroyed the place and threatened to kill them if they left their homes.
They also said that the men surrounded the police station to prevent them from reporting the incident, which made them return to their homes.
Mohamed Qutry, a coordinator of Shafiq’s campaign, denied such claims in statements to the state-owned daily Al-Ahram.
Qutry accused Abouel Fotouh’s supporters of tearing down the banners of Shafiq’s campaign.
“The Brotherhood is trying to sabotage the elections, but God will not allow them to do so,” he said.
