The Brotherhood was banned under the ousted President Hosni Mubarak but ran candidates as “independents,” who could be identified on posters by the radical group’s well-known slogan.

Many liberal politicians and Egyptians have been worried by the rising influence of the Brotherhood since the uprising. The group has sought to quell concerns by saying it wants a pluralist democracy and did not want to impose Islamic law.

“Electoral campaigns based on the use of religious slogans or on racial or gender segregation are banned,” a military council decree issued late on Saturday said, adding violators could face three months in jail and be fined.

The election committee earlier said the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party could not use the slogan, prompting some members to insist it should be allowed. But Brotherhood officials took a softer line after the army decree.

“The slogan is a way of life for us but it isn’t necessarily an electoral slogan,” Mohamed El-Beltagy, a senior figure in the Freedom and Justice party, told Reuters after the decree.

“We might reconsider using it in the elections in light of the conditions and might replace it,” with other slogans, he said. The Brotherhood has been more accommodating of the army than some activists, which analysts say is because it does not want to disrupt an election process that will strengthen its role and prevent a return to repression it faced under Mubarak. Voting in a parliamentary election starts on Nov. 28.

Egyptian law bars political parties based on religion, just as it did under Mubarak. But the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party won approval by saying Islam was a “reference” and it was a civil party that did not seek to impose Islamic law.

One radical group that sought to establish a party was barred. The parties’ committee said that was because it called for implementing Islamic law and also because one of its founders had been jailed over his role in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, barring him from politics.

Despite saying the Brotherhood would reconsider using the slogan, Beltagy said it should be allowed under the article of the constitution that cites Shariah as the principle source of legislation.

Parliament will choose an assembly to draw up a new constitution. Liberals are concerned that radicals will dominate Parliament, which will influence the contents of a new constitution.

Analysts said the amendment to election rules reflected the military council’s eagerness for a civil state and worries expressed by those opposed to the conservatives.

“It indicates the rising concern of other civil streams who are concentrating their campaigns now,” said Hossam Tammam, an expert on Islamic groups. Amendments to the election rules announced on Saturday also outlined one to five-year prison terms and fines for anyone using force, threats, cash or other steps to prevent voters from casting ballots or forcing them to choose a specific candidates.

Rights groups said such tactics were common in elections under Mubarak whose now defunct National Democratic Party routinely secured sweeping victories.

The council said such punishments would also apply to those who published or circulated false information about candidates behavior with the intention of influencing voters.

Under pressure form political parties, the military council has also expanded from a half to two thirds the numbers of seats elected according to party lists, reducing the seats offered to individuals. Parties will be able to field candidates on lists or for seats open to individuals.

Meanwhile, members of Egypt’s former ruling party have demanded to be allowed to run in upcoming elections, as officials mull a draft law that could see them banished from politics for a decade.

The plea came during a rally organized on Saturday evening by members of the now dissolved National Democratic Party — which was headed by ousted president Hosni Mubarak — in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, participants said.

“The honorable Jan. 25 revolution ... cannot be owned, it belongs to all the Egyptian people,” former minister of social solidarity, Ali Moselhi, told the 5,000-strong crowd.

“The revolution aimed to bring about freedom, dignity, democracy and social justice, not to promote some parties and exclude others, or restore dictatorship in any of its forms,” Moselhi said.

Activists who participated in protests that toppled Mubarak in February have launched a strong campaign to ban all members of the old regime from running for public office.

On Saturday, Egypt’s ruling military amended an election law to allow parties to contest all of Parliament’s seats in a concession to parties who had threatened to boycott. Under Mubarak, ruling party members resorted to bribes and hiring thugs to influence the results.

At the rally, Moselhi said former NDP members “should not be stripped of their rights.”

“Freedom should be absolute ... we cannot talk of exclusion or discrimination and claim to be building (a state) of freedom and dignity,” Moselhi said. Mohammed Sheta, a former member of the Shoura Council — the upper house of Parliament — said he challenged anyone involved in political life to say they did not work or coexist with the dissolved NDP.

“This is not a stain, many members of the party criticized the decisions of the leadership,” Sheta said.

In April, an Egyptian court dissolved the NDP and ordered its funds and property be handed over to the government.

Several former ministers and businessmen associated with the party are currently in jail or being investigated for corruption.

Others have kept a low profile since Mubarak was ousted.

The former president himself is in custody, facing trial for killing protesters during the uprising and corruption.