A CANDIDATE from the banned Muslim Brotherhood running in Egypt’s parliamentary elections said the authorities had arrested his campaign manager and 17 other Islamists. The Brotherhood has been banned since 1954, but has enjoyed intermittent periods of official tolerance. It cannot take part openly in political life, but informally nominates and supports candidates running as independents. It has been subject to a crackdown since 1995, when the government accused it of links to militant groups fighting President Hosni Mubarak’s secular rule. State security prosecutors in Cairo are to question eight of the detainees, including the two aides, which analysts say means they will be detained for six months without charge according to the emergency law. The other 10 men were unable to pay fines of $140 each and remained in detention. More than 200 alleged members of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest and most influential fundamentalist group, have been rounded up in recent months. – Reuters