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Police Kill 8 in Egypt 'Electoral Intifada'
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Egyptian protestors throw rocks at police in the Delta town of Mansoura. (Reuters)
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Additional
Reporting By IOL Correspondents **
CAIRO,
December 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Voter
frustration at the Egyptian police's closure of polling stations at
the final round of voting in the month-long parliamentary polls
spilled over into scenes reminiscent of the Palestinian Intifada
Wednesday, December 7, with youngsters hurling stones at security
forces, who opened their fire randomly killing at least eight people.
In
the northern coastal town of Damietta, two supporters of the
officially banned but popular Muslim Brotherhood were shot dead by
police's rubber bullets in clashes that broke out outside polling
stations.
A
security source said in statements to Reuters that the two victims
were Saeed Rizk from the village of Al-Khiyata and Shabaan Abdu Arbaa
from the village of Al-Sananiya.
Three
men died of bullet wounds and another died of a heart attack after
inhaling tear-gas fired by police to disperse protestors in the
northeastern governorate of Al-Gharbiya, medical sources told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
The
human rights group Sawasya named, in statements to IslamOnline.net,
two of the Al-Sharqiya victims as Mohamed Karam Al-Taher and Mohamed
Ahmed Mahdi, 22.
Two
more were gunned down by police in the district of Al-Matariya, the
northeastern governorate of Dakahliya.
The
Muslim Brotherhood charged that another of its supporters was killed,
brining to nine the number of deaths since the polls kicked off on
November 9.
Polling
stations have officially closed at 19:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Wednesday
after third-phase runoffs, although hundreds of them barely ever
opened and were sealed off by police.
The
Muslim Brotherhood became a major opposition force after securing 76
seats in the first two phases but charged the regime of President
Hosni Mubarak was using violence and fraud to curb its gains in the
final stage.
'Intifada'
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Egyptian police barricade the entrance of a polling station. (Reuters)
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Running
from one side-street to another and using their superior knowledge of
the terrain, groups of young Egyptians waged a small-scale guerrilla
war on the security services, dodging tear gas canisters and rubber
bullets, AFP said.
"Where
are the stones?" shouted one of the young Egyptians, darting
across a bridge shrouded in tear gas in the Nile Delta village of
Al-Aziziya.
Helping
him, his friends are picking up stones and smashing up bricks into
smaller ammunition.
Security
forces were trying to rinse their eyes in a nearby canal, as a rain of
stones and tear gas canisters ensured no voters cast their ballots and
sent women and children scurrying away into the safety of their homes.
Thugs
hired by the NDP came forward, brandishing truncheons and machetes and
protected by the police, said AFP.
The
move sparked the fury of the cluster of would-be voters, most of them
are Brotherhood supporters, who starting to pelt their enemies with
stones.
A
50-strong phalanx of anti-riot police promptly charged the protestors,
raising a raucous battle cry and rattling their shields.
Barring
Voters
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An Egyptian woman lies unconscious after the use of tear gas by Egyptian police. (Reuters)
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Independent
monitors, opposition candidates and reporters have also reported that
scores of polling stations had been completely sealed off by large
contingents of police, fueling the anger of voters.
"The
police are attacking us again, they don't want to let us vote. I was
also unable to vote last week," Abdelsattar al-Mullah, his face
covered in blood, told AFP.
At
one stage, the protestors made a brief foray into the nearest polling
station, a boys school.
"Quick,
go and vote!", yelled one of them, as a small group stormed the
polling station and hastily cast a ballot, bringing the number of
votes in the judge's box to around 20 before retreating.
The
National Committee for Monitoring Elections activist Ihab Sallam told
IOL security forces cordoned off the polling stations since early in
the morning in Delta governorates of Kafr El-Sheikh, Daqahliya, and
Damietta.
Ladders
were also systematically confiscated by policemen in an attempt to bar
voters from voting for Muslim Brotherhood candidates, witnesses told
IOL.
The
ladders were used on a large scale in the previous rounds by voters to
access the ballot boxes through back doors and windows.
Teams
of a number of Arab satellite channels were also barred from reaching
the voting stations.
Al-Jazeera,
Al-Arabiya and Al-Hurra channels have been denied access to polling
stations where violence was reported.
**
IOL
Correspondents Abdul Minim Mahmoud, Samer Elatrash and Ahmed Fathy
contributed to this story.
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