Egypt's opposition reports losing seats in election - Summary

Mon, 29 Nov 2010

Cairo - Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said Monday that it appears to have lost most of its seats in the lower house of parliament in the previous day's election.

The group, which had 88 seats, was unable to confirm victory in even one constituency.

"This cannot be called an election, this is a farce directed by the regime," Brotherhood spokesman Gamal Nassar told the German Press Agency dpa.

The group, in a claim echoed by human rights groups, alleged that fraud took place, saying many of its supporters were refused entry at polling stations to cast their ballots.

President Hosny Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) appears to have ensured its continued grip over the People's Assembly following the election, which was seen as a key indicator ahead of next year's vote for the presidency.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents because the group is outlawed, won nearly a fifth of the total in the People's Assembly in 2005, making it the largest opposition bloc in the 518-member lower house.

A representative of the liberal party al-Wafd said it appeared to have retained its six seats and possibly picked up another.

Sunday's vote was marred by violence which spread into Monday. At least seven people died and dozens were arrested for rioting.

Two people were killed and three injured when a car plowed into a crowd which gathered near a polling station in the eastern Sharqiya province while votes were being counted on Monday.

Passengers inside then took out guns and opened fire on supporters of an independent candidate. The driver was arrested by police, security officials said.

In another incident, the son of a candidate was stabbed to death on Sunday during clashes between supporters of several candidates.

The Interior Ministry said some of the violence was not related to the election itself.

Officials say the two people who attacked the candidate's son have confessed that they came after him for harassing their sister.

Another woman died of diabetes inside a polling station in Alexandria, officials said.

Rights groups meanwhile charged that fraud was rampant.

"The repeated exclusion of opposition representatives and independent monitors from polling stations, along with reports of violence and fraud suggest that citizens were not able to partake in free elections," Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division, said in Cairo.

"We did not find a single indication across the constituencies that the election process took place in a transparent and fair environment," said Magdy Abdel-Hamid, chairman of the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement.

The official High Elections Commission said that there were "a limited number of instances of violence" but that the breaches did not undermine the electoral process as a whole.

A group of human rights advocates rejected an official turnout rate of 25 per cent, and said that it was perhaps half that figure showed up to the polls out of Egypt's 42 million eligible voters.

Official results are to be announced on Tuesday, the election commission said. A run-off vote where needed will be held on Sunday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355762,seats-election-summary.html.