One dead as Egyptian police open fire on voters

Riot police fought with voters, firing tear gas and bullets that killed one person, as the state barred 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, but he did not give a figure for the wounded. Minutes earlier Hamad had issued a ministry statement saying that polling had "unfolded in a smooth and peaceful manner."

In one Nile Delta village, men and women were so determined to vote that when police blocked the front of the polling station, they went round to the back and used ladders to climb over the wall.

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.

Lines of police officers cordoned off both polling stations in the Nile Delta village of Sandoub, preventing anybody from casting their vote.

"President (Hosni) Mubarak deceived me. I believed him when he talked about democracy but look at what is going on," said Hamdi Sayyed, one of hundreds of would-be voters in Sandoub.

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, such as the Delta city of Zagazig, where a Brotherhood candidate was favoured, voting proceeded normally Thursday without violence or intimidation. But in several constituencies, The Associated Press saw that voters had been barred.

In Balteem, supporters of the Nasserite candidate Hamdeen Sabahi began pushing and shoving the riot police who blocked them from the polling station. The police tried to disperse the crowd with night sticks and tear gas, but the voters responded by hurling stones, said Nasserite campaign worker el-Ashqar.

Finally, the police fired into the crowd, killing el-Zeftawi, a fisherman.

Earlier today, 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 and slipped in through a bathroom window.

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.

"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)," he said.

More than 10 million Egyptians were eligible to vote in today's 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 appointed by Mubarak.

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

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.