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Violence in elections as brotherhood makes gains { November 16 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5417949,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5417949,00.html
Violence Erupts During Egyptian Runoffs
Wednesday November 16, 2005 1:01 AM
AP Photo CAI1015
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Scattered violence erupted during runoff elections Tuesday that saw a heated competition between the long-dominant ruling party and Egypt's leading Islamic group, which hopes to increase its presence in the country's parliament.
Candidates affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic fundamentalist party and its most powerful opposition movement, appeared to be making gains. Early results said Brotherhood candidates won at least 31 seats, with 43 for the ruling National Democratic Party.
The bulk of the 133 seats across the country up for grabs in Tuesday's runoff were still to be announced, and final results have differed greatly from initial announcements in past races.
The NDP has dominated parliament for decades and is expected to keep a large majority, but the Brotherhood has put up unusually fierce competition this time.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the Brotherhood leader, urged supporters to try to protect ballot boxes from tampering, saying, ``we will defend them to death.''
The election comes amid promises by the government to introduce democratic reforms in this U.S. ally, where President Hosni Mubarak has held unquestioned power for 24 years.
In scattered violence Tuesday, a shotgun blast in Cairo and a fight in the southern city of Assiut left three people hospitalized, police reported.
After polls closed, several thousand Brotherhood supporters demonstrated in front of a Cairo counting center, protesting that security forces were barring candidates' monitors from attending the ballot count. Earlier in the day, Brotherhood supporters scuffled with NDP supporters outside a polling station in Heliopolis.
The runoff is to decide the outcome in districts where no candidate obtained more than half the vote in the Nov. 9 first round of the three-round parliamentary election. Only 31 seats were decided in last week's vote - 26 for the NDP, four for the Brotherhood and one for an independent.
None of Egypt's other main opposition parties won seats in the Nov. 9 vote.
Lawmakers affiliated with the Brotherhood hold 15 seats in the outgoing 454-member parliament, while the NDP has nearly 390 members.
Human rights groups and other monitors reported widespread irregularities in Tuesday's vote, including ruling party supporters attacking and intimidating opposition supporters at polling stations and NDP voters bused in from out of district.
``We have gone a few steps back in comparison with the 2000 elections,'' said Bahey el-Din Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, referring to Egypt's last parliamentary election.
Gamal Hamad, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said intimidation ``was limited'' and that police stopped a few people who had been planning to assault voters.
The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, has been banned since 1954, though it renounced violence in the 1970s. It is not allowed to run as a party in the elections, but it endorses ``independent'' candidates who openly declare their allegiance to the group.
Outside one polling station in the Cairo district of Nasr City, an Associated Press reporter saw more than 20 buses filled with voters and emblazoned with the NDP candidate's posters. The buses' license plates showed they came from outside Cairo, from areas as far away as the Red Sea.
The second round of the elections takes place Nov. 20 and the third round on Dec. 1, held in different provinces each time. Runoffs will be held six days after each round.
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