CAIRO, Dec 6: Egypt arrested at least 69 members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday, a move the group said was to scare voters on the eve of a final round of parliamentary elections in which the Brotherhood has made stunning gains.

The Brotherhood, which has won 76 seats in the 454-seat house so far in voting over the past month, also said the United States had ignored official abuses and given the government a free hand to act as it pleased.

Rights groups have reported widespread violations in voting that began on Nov. 9, including denying some voters access to polling stations, buying votes and fabricating the results. The government has promised a fair election.

Washington has urged Egypt to ensure a clean race but says it has seen nothing during the elections so far to suggest Cairo was not interested in a free and fair vote.

A Brotherhood spokesman and security sources said 69 Brotherhood members were arrested on Tuesday morning in the Giza area of the capital Cairo and Sohag to the south.

The Brotherhood says more than 1,500 members have been detained since voting started. Hundreds remain in detention.

“This is a campaign to abort this final stage (of voting) and it seems that Washington turned a blind eye to the official abuses in the elections. So, the government is now doing what it wants without any pressure from any side,” Brotherhood spokesman Badr Mohamed Badr told Reuters.

The Brotherhood has to field its candidates as independents because the government refuses to recognize the group as an official party, a position the United States says it respects.

In a separate statement, the Brotherhood in Alexandria said 22 members were detained before Wednesday’s vote but did not say when the arrests took place. Badr also said there were recent arrests in other areas of Egypt but did not have details.

President Hosni Mubarak’s party has kept a big majority in parliament and is set to win enough seats in Wednesday’s voting to retain control of the constitution. Constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority in parliament.

On Wednesday, voting will take place in 127 constituencies in the Nile Delta, Sohag and Aswan in southern Egypt, the Red Sea coast and the Sinai peninsula, wherever no candidate won more than 50 per cent of the vote last week.

The Brotherhood is contesting 35 seats and has said it expects to win about 15 to 20 to add to its total.

The group has more than tripled the seats it had in the last parliament and is the biggest opposition group, far outstripping secular parties which have won just a handful of seats.

Badr said the campaign of arrests was designed to punish areas which backed the Brotherhood and warn those still voting.

“The aim is to terrorize voters and stir anxiety and tension,” he said.

Voters fought with riot police restricting access to the polls in last week’s vote. The Brotherhood said the government was trying to limit its gains. Three people have been killed so far during the elections.

Aside from Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP), no recognized party has the five per cent of parliamentary seats needed to field a candidate in the 2011 presidential race.

The rules were laid down in a constitutional amendment passed this year before Egypt’s first presidential polls in September. With a two-thirds majority, the NDP could control further amendments before the next parliamentary polls in 2010.

But critics say the government may not be interested in further changes, saying the rules were drawn up to ensure a constitutionally legitimate succession for Mubarak’s 41-year-old son Gamal, a senior NDP official. The NDP denies this.—Reuters