CAIRO, June 2: Egyptian police arrested 32 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday as part of a crackdown against the opposition group ahead of parliamentary elections this month, security officials said.The arrests bring to at least 80 the number of Brotherhood supporters detained since Thursday, the largest raid since February when police arrested hundreds of Islamists along with the banned group’s third-in-command Khairat el-Shatir.

The officials said 20 supporters were arrested in the Nile Delta province of Menoufiya on Saturday when they were hanging up banners of a Brotherhood candidate running in the June 11 elections for the upper house of the parliament, the Shura Council.

Police arrested 12 others in the Nile Delta city of Damanhoor and the coastal town of Ismailia, security officials and Brotherhood sources said.

The group’s official website (www.ikhwanonline.org) also said that police had raided stores owned by Brotherhood supporters in the province of Fayoum.

The Muslim Brotherhood operates openly despite an official ban since 1954. Members running as independents won nearly one-fifth of the seats in the influential lower house of the parliament in 2005. The government says the Islamist organisation is illegal and regularly arrests its members.

The Brotherhood said it had registered 19 candidates for the June elections.—Reuters