Some Egyptian polling stations cordoned off

Riot police clashed with would-be voters and blocked off polling stations to prevent people from casting ballots in several Muslim Brotherhood and opposition strongholds today, as Egypt entered the final round of legislative elections marred by violence and allegations of rigging.

In one village, men and women determined to vote resorted to climbing over the back wall of the polling station on a ladder, slipping in through a bathroom window, out of sight of police barring the entrance.

Security forces beat up least four judges posted to monitor voting, and others judges were forced to close their stations because of clashes outside, said Hesham el-Bastawisy, a member of a movement of pro-reform judges.

“President (Hosni) Mubarak deceived me. I believed him when he talked about democracy but look at what is going on,” said Hamdi Sayyed, a would-be voter in the Nile Delta village of Sandoub, where lines of riot police barred people from the polling station.

Under US pressure to bring democratic reform, Mubarak’s government has given its top rival, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamic 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 current representation in parliament more than five-fold.

In some towns – even ones where Brotherhood candidates were favoured – voting proceeded normally today, without police intervening or violence by candidates’ supporters. But in several, voters were barred.

The Interior Ministry accused the Brotherhood of inciting violence and attacking judges in polling stations. It said beefed-up security measures were taken to prevent Brotherhood supporters from “terrorising” voters for other candidates.

Hundreds of people lined up in front of a school used as a polling station in Sandoub, 75 miles north of Cairo – the hometown of Brotherhood candidate Saber Zakher – but they were prevented from approaching by lines of riot police, armed with sticks, rifles and tear-gas launchers.

“Where is democracy and freedom? We want to vote but they prevented us,” Ibtassam el-Shazli, a Sandoub resident dressed head to toe in a black veil. She said she had intended to vote for the Brotherhood. “We want someone who feels our pain. We are fed up with disease, unemployment and poverty.”

In the nearby town of Bussat, the smell of tear gas hung in the air as angry would-be voters shouted at police blocking the station. Behind the polling station, men and women clambered up ladders over the wall.

An independent candidate not connected to the Brotherhood, Faisal Ibrahim Hassanein, is running against a candidate from the ruling National Democratic Party in the Bussat area.

Hundreds of security forces cordoned off schools in the Sinai town of el-Arish, preventing most voters from entering. Emad el-Bolok, a 35-year-old merchant, said police let him in to vote after he told them he was an NDP supporter.

When police asked who he would vote for, he said: “I said ‘The NDP candidate, of course.’ Inside the polling station, the NDP representative told me which name I should choose, but I voted for Abdel Rahman el-Shorbagi (the Brotherhood candidate).”

More than 10 million Egyptians were eligible to vote in today’s third and final round, where the last 136 of parliament’s 454 seats were being contested. Run-off polls will be held yesterday in districts where no candidate gets at least 50% of the vote.

In the two earlier rounds of polling in November, Brotherhood candidates won 76 seats, up from 15 in the outgoing assembly. The NDP has won 201 seats, and other independent or opposition candidates have taken 25. Results in six seats were thrown out, and 10 seats are apponted by Mubarak.

The Brotherhood, which has campaigned under the slogan “Islam is the solution,” has been banned since 1954, but it has long been somewhat tolerated. Its candidates run as independents, though their allegiance to the Brotherhood is known to voters.

The first-round vote and run-off passed with little violence, but after the Brotherhood’s strong showing, the government cracked down in the second round and its run-off, with police and supporters blocking or assaulting Brotherhood supporters from some polling stations. At least one person has been killed in polling violence.

More than 500 Brotherhood supporters were arrested earlier this week, the police have said. About 1,300 Brotherhood loyalists are believed to have been arrested since polling began on November 9. Many have been released, but hundreds are still in custody.

Today, voting was light but unhindered in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig. Voters walked into adjacent schools turned into polling stations – one for men, one for women – in the city’s Nahal district, where the outspoken Muslim Brotherhood legislator Mohammed Morsi is standing for re-election.

Morsi, the leader of the Brotherhood-backed candidates in the outgoing parliament, has been a thorn in the government’s side for the past five years. But the NDP appeared not to have mounted a large effort to mobilise voters, as it did in Cairo constituencies where significant Brotherhood candidates stood in earlier rounds.