Man killed as riot police and voters clash in Egypt election violence

RIOT police and voters clashed yesterday, killing one person and blocking entry to polling stations in opposition strongholds in the third and final round of Egypt's legislative elections.

Police fired into a crowd in the Balteem district of Kafr el-Sheik, killing Gomaa el-Zeftawi, a fisherman, and wounding 60 other people, said Mohammed el-Ashqar, a campaign worker for a Nasserite opposition candidate.

Interior Ministry spokesman General Ibrahim Hamad confirmed the killing of el-Zeftawi, the second fatality since the elections began on November 9.

In one village, men and women determined to vote resorted to sneaking into the polling station, putting up ladders to climb over back walls - out of sight of police barring the entrance - and slipping through bathroom windows to get in.

Voting proceeded normally in some towns, but in two villages visited by the Associated Press - one the hometown of a Muslim Brotherhood candidate, the other of an independent candidate - police were blocking voters. In some southern towns, voters were intimidated by lines of police outside stations.

"I'm calling on his excellency, the president, to appoint the members of parliament because no-one has been allowed to vote... It would save the money wasted on elections," Sameer Fikri, a would-be voter in the village of Sandoub, said sarcastically.

Under US pressure to bring democratic reforms, President Hosni Mubarak's government gave the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamist movement, considerable leeway to campaign in the early stages of the three-part elections.

But police interference has intensified in the later rounds, after the Brotherhood scored unexpectedly large gains, increasing its representation in parliament more than fivefold.

The Brotherhood, which has campaigned under the slogan "Islam is the solution", has been banned since 1954, but it has long been somewhat tolerated.