Egypt's ruling party has maintained its grip on power, official election results showed Thursday, after a final day of voting was marred by violent efforts to curb Islamist gains.
Nine people were killed in clashes between police and Islamists during the last round Wednesday of the month-long parliamentary polls, which have drawn US condemnation over electoral abuse.
Results released by the electoral commission showed the National Democratic Party (NDP) of veteran President Hosni Mubarak and affiliated independents won 324 seats over three rounds.
The results give the ruling bloc a two-thirds majority in parliament and the power to pass constitutional amendments or emergency laws, although its tally falls short of the 404 seats it mustered in the 2000 polls.
The main opposition force, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, won at least 88 seats in the 454-strong People's Assembly, six times the number of MPs it had in the outgoing chamber.
"We will be an opposition group, a strong opposition group," Brotherhood spokesman Issam al-Aryan told AFP.
By clinching almost 20 percent of parliament seats despite fielding less than half of the maximum 444 candidates, the group founded in 1928 (eds: correct) by Hassan al-Banna made the most serious dent in Mubarak's 24-year-old autocratic rule.
With seven Brotherhood candidates involved in 12 re-runs, the movement, which has renounced violence after a bloody past, could still edge closer to the 100 mark.
Scores of polling stations were sealed off by police Wednesday, especially in areas where candidates representing the Muslim Brotherhood were contesting the final runoffs, fuelling frustration that often spilled over into violence.
According to medical and security sources, nine Egyptians were killed in clashes outside polling stations, mainly between security forces and Islamist supporters.
Several more people were in critical condition.
Scenes reminiscent of the Palestinian intifada filled the streets of Nile Delta towns and villages in northern Egypt, as youngsters armed with stones played cat-and-mouse with riot police firing tear-gas and rubber bullets.
The independent daily Nahdet Masr described the situation as "a siege slapped on the Muslim Brothers" by the government.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights reported that hundreds of polling stations had been closed nearly all day. "Only NDP supporters have been allowed to enter polling stations using their party IDs," it said in a statement.
"This blatant, biased intervention of security forces in the election undermines the transparency of the voting process and clearly points to the government's intent to tamper with the results," the Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development said.
The interior ministry denied any attempt to prevent voting and insisted the election was "proceeding smoothly" and that the violence was instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents, conducted a well-crafted campaign under the slogan "Islam is the solution," but the scope of its gains surprised observers.
The movement advocates the implementation of Islamic law but has made conciliatory statements towards the country's Christian minority.
According to unofficial results, the final round saw rare victories for two prominent members of the secular opposition, one from the liberal Wafd and the other from the Nasserist party Karama.
Ghad party leader and presidential runner-up Ayman Nur crashed to a stinging defeat in his own Cairo bastion in the first phase of the polls and was jailed earlier this week even before the end of his forgery trial.
So far, only four women and one Coptic Christian have won seats.
Washington - which had made Egypt a kingpin of its policy of democratisation in the region - had hailed Egypt's first pluralist presidential election in September as a landmark.
But in a marked shift, it voiced serious concern Tuesday over electoral abuses and said its key Middle East ally was sending the "wrong signal" about its commitment to democracy.
Comments
Comments are closed.