Violence mars Egyptian election

WIDESPREAD violence marred the second round of Egypt’s parliamentary vote yesterday, with police saying a campaign worker was shot and killed in Alexandria and witnesses reporting scores of injuries.

The clashes between supporters of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood and ruling party were in sharp contrast with the November 9 first round of voting, which passed in relative peace and saw the banned Brotherhood double its representation in parliament.

There are 1,706 candidates competing in 72 constituencies in this round of elections, and results are not expected until later.

The Brotherhood was expected to win more seats yesterday and in the December 1 third round.

Earlier, a Brotherhood spokesman in Alexandria, Ali Abdel Fattah, said “thugs” had opened fire on the group’s backers at a downtown polling station, killing one man and wounding several other people.

In the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, witnesses said a Brotherhood candidate’s brother was shot and wounded by the cousin of a ruling National Democratic Party candidate. The NDP, the party of President Hosni Mubarak, held an 80% heading into the three-stage vote.

Ismailia Health Department Director Abdel-Munim el-Sharqawi said four other people were hospitalised after clashes between Brotherhood and NDP supporters.

In Damanhur, about 85 miles north of Cairo, as many as 40 people were wounded when Brotherhood supporters clashed with NDP backers who tried to pull down and burn Brotherhood banners.

As polling places opened, there were complaints of irregularities.

In Port Said, Mustafa Saber, a poll monitor from the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said he was prevented from entering the polling station by police who were only allowing NDP supporters in.

The Brotherhood calls for implementing Islamic law but is vague about what that means. It advocates the veil for women and campaigns against perceived immorality in the media. But the group insists it represents a more moderate face of Islam than that followed in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.

The government generally tolerates the group, which renounced violence in the 1970s, but hundreds of members have been detained in recent months amid increased protests against Mr Mubarak, Egypt’s leader for 24 years.

The United States has urged Mr Mubarak, its steadfast ally in the Middle East, to allow greater democracy. But US officials also are eyeing the Brotherhood with concern.

The NDP garnered 112 seats in the first round of elections.