Cairo, Egypt - An Egyptian court has denied a request by the electoral commission to disqualify eight Muslim Brotherhood candidates from standing in Monday's parliamentary elections, judicial sources said on Sunday.
Members of the ruling National Democratic Party had petitioned the commission to disqualify the Brotherhood candidates, alleging that they had violated electoral laws by campaigning under religious slogans, a practice banned by recent changes to the constitution.
But the Supreme Administrative Court said on Sunday that there was no conclusive evidence that the candidates or their supporters had used religious slogans while campaigning, clearing the path for the Brotherhood's full complement of 19 candidates to run in Monday's elections.
Authorities have intensified their crackdown on the Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest opposition group despite a 53-year-old state ban, ahead of the June 11 elections for the upper house of parliament, the Shoura Council.
The Brotherhood said more than 760 of its members were in detention, including 600 who were picked up after the beginning of the electoral campaign last month.
The group, which operates openly, fields members in general elections running as independent candidates to bypass the state ban. It won nearly one fifth of the seats in the influential lower house of parliament in 2005.
Analysts say that result alarmed the government, which wants to stop the Brotherhood now before it makes more electoral gains that could help it mount a serious challenge to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981.
Egyptians have largely ignored the Shoura Council elections, but the next ballot is the first since new changes to the constitution gave the house some legislative powers.
The amendments also ban political activity based on religion and weaken judicial supervision of elections, articles that human rights groups say were designed to target the Brotherhood.
The non-violent Islamist group says it wants to establish a democratic state based on Islam that does not exclude non-Muslims from power.
The ruling party, on its Web site (www.ndp.org.eg), also stresses the role of Islam as the main source of legislation and says it believes in the role of religion in achieving progress.