Egypt: 26 percent turnout in elections

Daily Star Egypt Staff
3 Min Read

CAIRO: Just one quarter of registered voters cast ballots in the month-long parliamentary elections that ended this week,Egypt’s justice minister said Saturday.

The three-stage elections were among Egypt’s most violent, resulting in at least 10 deaths and scores of injures since polling opened Nov.9 and ended Wednesday.

Rights groups said the violence was triggered by the banned Muslim Brotherhood’s unprecedented success in the first round of balloting, which led to increased police presence at voting stations.

Many said police kept them from voting, but the Interior Ministry has said police were protecting the stations and helping voters reach the ballot box, and accused Brotherhood supporters of inciting the violence.

Justice Minister Mahmoud Abu El-Leil said turnout in the parliamentary elections was 26 percent. He said the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won 311 of the 432 decided seats, or 72 percent.

Abu El-Leil labeled the remaining 112 winners as “independents, including 88 affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, giving it a 20 percent share of the seats, by far its best ever showing.The group, banned but tolerated, had just 15 seats in the previous parliament.

Only nine seats went to legal opposition parties; the other 24 lawmakers do not belong to any group but lean closer to the NDP.

Ten members are appointed by President Hosni Mubarak.

The rights groups Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders demanded Egyptian authorities investigate the violence that marred the final stage,which saw police attack and open fire on voters to stop them from casting ballots while harassing journalists.

Separately,Ayman Nour, the runner-up in this year’s presidential elections,was remanded to jail Saturday.Nour,who faces charges of ordering the forging of signatures to register his al- Ghad party last year, has pleaded innocent and says the government is trying to frame him.

Nour finished a distant second to longtime President Hosni Mubarak in a September election and lost his parliament seat in November polls.

“Just skimming through the pages of the case, I was appalled by the amount of injustice and framing against Ayman Nour, said his lawyer, Farid El-Deeb. “It’s another series of taking revenge and persecuting political opposition. Nour’s Jan. 29 arrest and subsequent 42-day detention without charges strained relations between the United States and Egypt. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice canceled a March visit; when she eventually came in June, she met with Nour and other opposition figures.

U.S. and European representatives were in the courtroom Saturday. – AP

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