- MB NewsYouth
- October 13, 2010
- 4 minutes read
MB students rise in peaceful protests condemning interference in students’ elections
Over seven thousand students, affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, staged a protest on Tuesday at Tanta’s University against a decision to ban their colleagues from running in upcoming student elections.
Students held banners calling for monitoring of the elections by international committees and objected to the university administration’s decision of allowing security forces to interfere in their elections, scheduled for October 18th.
In Helwan, close to 150 students from Helwan University ‘s coordination committee engaged in a silent protest outside the university’s main gate for similar reasons.
MB students from Cairo University, announced their campaign program asserting to university administrators that they "would not remain silent if any of their fielded candidates were banned from running".
Brotherhood affiliated students at Ain Shams University, accused campus security of assaulting two students and also held demonstrations in protest.
Dozens of brotherhood affiliated students at the Higher Institute of Technology in Banha also staged a protest, condemning a decision to ban 70 students from running in the elections, including 25 brotherhood-affiliated students. Slogans were chanted condemning the decision and students accused the University dean of trying to rig elections favoring students affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party.
The Cairo-based Haqi Center for Legal Freedoms of University Students, called on Egypt’s attorney general in a statement to open an immediate investigation into an alleged attack on two female Zagazig University students. At the Zagazig University, brotherhood students ascertained that security forces kidnapped two students from a library near the University’s faculty of medicine and took them to a Zagazig police station.
In Beni Sueif University, ten brotherhood students are under investigation, after allegedly hanging posters on the University campus in support of the National Assembly for Change reform movement, with the administration banning another eight students from nominating themselves for student elections and 17 from Monofeya were expelled for a 30 day period. While At the University of Mansoura, 53 out of the 80 students that filed candidacy applications were banned.
In the meantime, officials from the University of Alexandria confirmed that they would announce the names of the student candidates on October 17th. According to Rushdie Zahran, Vice President of Education and Student Affairs, approximately 1233 students have filed applications, all of which were accepted.