Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood to boycott run-off vote - Summary

Wed, 01 Dec 2010

Cairo - Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, announced Wednesday it will withdraw from the country's upcoming run-off vote, after charging that the government rigged the first round of the parliamentary elections.

"The lack of our participation in this round of elections does not mean a change in our strategy or that we will not participate in all elections, but it is a position imposed by the current circumstances," said the Brotherhood in a statement explaining its decision to sit out Sunday's poll.

According to former parliamentarian Mohamed al-Beltagy - a Muslim Brotherhood member who had been slated to compete in a run-off - the decision to boycott the elections was made because "there are no guarantees of free or fair elections."

"There are no monitors, no civil society members, no judges to watch over the vote. There is instead bullying and fraud in changes of the vote," he told the German Press Agency dpa.

But the High Elections Committee, which oversees the vote, said that some 6,100 observers monitored nearly two-thirds of the polling centers.

The Brotherhood, which is officially banned and fields its candidates as "independents," lost all seats for which results have been released from this weekend's vote. It still had 27 contenders set to take part in the run-off.

In the last election, in 2005, the Brotherhood won 20 per cent of the lower house, or People's Assembly, making it the largest opposition bloc, with 88 seats.

Joining the boycott is Egypt's Wafd party, which won just four seats out of the 508 up for election. It was slated to contest eight more in the upcoming run-off.

Overall, opposition parties won just seven seats in the first- round vote, with the rest going to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) or independent candidates, many of whom have close ties to the NDP.

As expected, the NDP swept the parliamentary elections, amassing 41 per cent of the vote in elections for the lower house, state-run media reported.

At least 207 of the 508 seats contested in Sunday's poll, went to President Hosny Mubarak's NDP, the al-Ahram daily newspaper reported. Many other seats that remain contested will be won in run-off races between two NDP candidates or an NDP candidate and an independent who has NDP links.

The NDP has the majority in parliament's upper house, or Shura Council.

The government has meanwhile hailed the outcome as a "celebration" for democracy.

The government reported that just under 2 per cent, or roughly 1,053 polling boxes, were tampered with and thus disqualified. They also said that 35 per cent of registered voters, around 14 million people, cast ballots.

Rights groups and opposition figures rejected the official claims about the turnout, saying less than half that figure voted.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356109,run-off-vote-summary.html.