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Muslim
Brotherhood Continues Record Win in Egypt's Polls
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Aryan
said his movement has won at least 13 seats in the second phase of
elections.
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CAIRO,
November 21, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Egypt's
Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members claimed further gains Monday, November
21, in the second round of parliamentary polls, maintaining their
record-breaking first phase momentum despite widespread voter
intimidation and violence.
Senior
Brotherhood Issam El-Aryan told Agence France-Presse (AFP) his
movement had won at least 13 seats in the second phase of elections,
without run-offs needed, bringing their seat tally to 47 half-way
through the elections and trebling their 2000 score.
While
President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) was
at no risk of losing power, it looked set to face a real parliamentary
opposition for the first time.
Official
results were expected later Monday.
Sunday's
polling was marred by widespread violence, which claimed the first
victim of the elections, the driver of a candidate whom independent
monitoring groups said was beaten to death by NDP thugs.
The
usually peaceful Mediterranean city of Alexandria was the scene of
pitched battles between supporters of rival candidates, as clans
fought with sticks, knives and guns.
Run-offs
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Violence
was the most prominent phenomenon. (Reuters)
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Brotherhood
deputy leader Mohammad Habib told Reuters 35 of his candidates would
contest run-offs on Saturday, November 26.
The
group had fielded 60 candidates in stage two, which decides 144 seats.
"If
the elections had taken place in a good way, like the first stage, 35
of those would have won," Habib said.
The
group's strong performance in the first stage aggravated the NDP and
sparked the crackdown "to reduce the number of voters and
consequently the number of winners", he said.
Police
arrested about 470 activists from the officially banned MB during and
ahead of voting on Sunday, November 20, according to Reuters.
Police
and armed gangs blocked polling stations in some MB strongholds,
witnesses said.
A
Muslim Brotherhood official in Alexandria charged that the NDP had
given thugs T-shirts inscribed with the Brotherhood's campaign slogan
"Islam is the solution" to mislead monitors.
"The
success recorded by the Muslim Brothers during the first phase sparked
fear in the regime, which cannot bear the presence of opposition in
parliament," Habib told AFP.
"The
NDP could see it was going to lose and resorted to violence and thugs
against the Muslim Brotherhood. All this was aimed at preventing
people from voting," he added.
"Who
can hit the hardest?" was the headline of Egypt's leading
independent daily Al-Masri Al-Yom, which carried front page
pictures of men and teenagers wielding swords, with their backs
protected by security forces, en addition to another picture of a
candidate holding a handgun.
Monitoring
groups deplored the violence and complained that they had been given
less access to the polling process than in the previous round.
"The
electoral process has been marred by serious and widespread violations
that have undermined the credibility and the integrity of the
election," said a statement by one of the main civil society
organizations, the Independent Committee for Election Monitoring.
In
the outgoing People's Assembly, the NDP controls 404 out of 454 seats,
while the Muslim Brothers were the largest opposition force but with
only 16 seats.
Legal
parties need five percent of parliament -- or 25 seats -- to field a
candidate in presidential elections.
But
independents require the approval of at least 65 members, according to
a constitutional amendment which the Brotherhood says was initially
designed to prevent it from running.
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