Egyptian riot police bar voters from reaching polling stations

Riot police barred Egyptian voters from the polls today as knife and gun clashes between supporters of Islamist and secular political parties marred runoff parliamentary elections.

The violence, coupled with wide-scale arrests, contributed to low voter turnout and came amid efforts by the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement - Egypt’s largest Islamist group – to bolster its already impressive tally of 47 out of 186 seats decided so far.