EYGPT: Preliminary results issued yesterday for Egypt's first contested poll gave the ruling National Democratic Party 73 per cent of the 444 seats in parliament and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood 19 per cent.
This is viewed as a major triumph for the Brotherhood, which boosted its representation sixfold to at least 88 seats, and a slap on the wrist to the NDP, with 333 down from 404 seats.
Some results from Wednesday's polling have yet to be announced and there will be run-offs in at least 12 constituencies.
The victory of the banned but tolerated Brotherhood - whose candidates ran as independents - was all the more sweet because the movement fielded only 150 candidates against the NDP's 444 formally adopted hopefuls, who took only 38 per cent, and the hundreds who ran as independents who took the majority of NDP seats and will sit on the NDP benches once parliament convenes.
Furthermore, the Brotherhood and its voters had to contend with flagrant interference in the polling by NDP supporters, officials and police during the three-stage election.
More than 1,000 Brotherhood backers were arrested, 80 on Wednesday, when police prevented thousands of Brotherhood voters from reaching 300 polling places. Nine people were killed in clashes with the police.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights reported that "only NDP supporters [ were] allowed to enter polling stations using their party IDs."
"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," stated the Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development.
Washington, a close ally of Egypt's president of 24 years, Hosni Mubarak who won a fifth term in office in an election in September, voiced concern over electoral violence and said that Cairo was sending a "wrong signal" about its readiness to democratise.
By securing two-thirds of the seats in the assembly, the NDP will continue to wield control and to be in a position to pass amendments to the constitution and adopt martial law.
While parliament can be expected to rubber stamp the policies of the government, the Brotherhood, which campaigned on the slogan "Islam is the solution," says it intends to conduct a vigorous opposition.
However, novelist Nawal Saadawi warned that the Brotherhood could use its enhanced status to curb women's rights.
