QATTAWEYA, EGYPT — He has been jailed, his computer has been seized, his blog is tracked by intelligence officials, and Mohammed Shawkat Malt concedes that his latest political quest appears doomed.
A gregarious lawyer in a pale suit, Malt, a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, has filed court appeals to get his name on the ballot for Tuesday's municipal elections. The government has ignored him, and Malt runs an unofficial shadow campaign with no chance of winning a seat on the council representing this farming village in the Nile Delta.
"I just want to say I'm present. I'm here. I won't lose hope," said Malt, 50.
Malt and other Muslim Brotherhood candidates across the nation have been barred by local election boards. It is an aggressive tactic by the ruling National Democratic Party, or NDP, to weaken the broad support of the Islamist organization, which represents the most significant opposition to President Hosni Mubarak at a time of widening discord over bread lines and inflation.
In recent weeks, more than 1,000 political activists and opposition figures, most of them belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, have been either arrested or detained. The group claims that only 498 of the 5,754 candidates it fielded were certified by election boards. The result: The NDP is expected to win 90% of 52,000 seats on councils representing villages, towns and cities.
Human rights groups have criticized Egypt for erecting a facade of democracy that is supported by about $2 billion in annual U.S. aid. The Bush administration said it was "concerned" about the arrests, but it was advised by NDP officials to not interfere in Egypt's domestic affairs.
"We lost the hope of having free and fair elections in Egypt," said Mustafa Kamel Sayed, a political science professor at Cairo University. "This time all indications point to an election that offers people very little choice."
The Mubarak government has been attempting throughout its more than 26 years in power to marginalize the Islamist organization. The Muslim Brotherhood supports the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and believes Egypt should be ruled by Islam's Sharia law. It has renounced violence at home. Its community services, which have highlighted government failings in healthcare and education, receive praise from the middle and educated classes.
