Egyptians cast ballots on Monday in a run-off election for 16 seats in the upper house of parliament following an initial poll last week that was marred by allegations of vote-rigging in favour of the ruling party.
President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party won 69 of 88 seats in the first round of Shoura Council elections on June 11. Only two non-NDP candidates won seats.
The opposition Muslim Brotherhood and rights groups said irregularities were widespread during last week's vote. That poll, for half the elected seats in the Shoura Council, was a test case for constitutional and legislative changes banning religious slogans and symbols as Egypt prepares for a transition of power from its ageing president.
The number of seats taken by the ruling party later rose to 70 after one NDP candidate dropped out of the race ahead of the run-off, ceding the seat in question to another NDP politician.
The ruling party is expected to take the vast majority of remaining seats because candidates in the run-off are all either members of the ruling party or independents, most of whom are believed to be NDP supporters not on the party's official ticket, parliamentary sources said.
Scuffles broke out during the run-off between supporters of an NDP candidate and an independent candidate loyal to the ruling party in the Nile Delta province of Manoufiya in which three people were injured, an Egyptian journalist who witnessed the scuffles said. "Thugs expelled representatives of an independent candidate from some polling places and stuffed ballot boxes in favour of the ruling party candidate," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.