CAIRO: The round two elections run-offs began in nine governorates on Monday amid low turnout, following days of violence between security and protesters demanding an immediate transfer of power from the ruling army council to a civilian authority.
The violent clashes left at least 13 dead and over 800 wounded since they broke out on Friday.
Yet political powers fielding candidates in the elections said that the violence had no effect on the run-offs.
"The turn out was also low in the run-offs during the first round of elections — it has nothing to do with the clashes," Yousri Hammad, spokesman of the Salafi Al-Nour Party, told Daily News Egypt.
Hani Sarei El-Din, member of the Free Egyptians Party’s political bureau, echoed the same view.
Essam El-Erian, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said on his Twitter account that being loyal to the martyrs’ blood and avenging them will not happen except by building state institutions. Meanwhile, Tarek Al-Zomor, leading member of the Building and Development Party, said the clashes encouraged people to head to the polling stations, to elect their representatives and achieve stability.
"Whoever wins in these elections will face a very difficult test and will have a tremendous responsibility," he told DNE.
The sentiment was the same at governorates located miles away from Cairo, where the violence broke out near the iconic Tahrir Square.
In Suez, Mohamed Radwan, media coordinator of the FJP, said that residents wanted to conclude a successful round of elections in order to achieve stability.
"What happened at the Cabinet building has had no influence on the people of Suez at all," he said.
In Ismailia, Hamdy Ismail, who tops FJP’s party list, agreed, attributing the low turnout to the fact that people voted on Dec. 14-15 because they couldn’t afford the LE 500 fine.
He added that the supporters of 164 independent candidates who were competing in the first round last week, dwindled to the supporters of only four candidates contesting the run-offs.
Khaled El-Bedeiwy, an elections monitor affiliated with the Egyptian Association for Social Participation in Ismailia, put the turn out at around 10 percent.
Gamal Hassan, who tops Al-Nour’s party list in Ismailia, said the turnout is always low in the run-offs.
Al-Nour’s Hammad said that flyers were falsely distributed in the name of Al-Nour Party supporting other independent candidates in constituencies where Al-Nour was absent but refused to name the parties.
Some political parties and observers reported a breach of the campaigning laws, especially by the FJP and Al-Nour, who continued to promote their candidates outside polling stations.
In Suez, Radwan accused Al-Nour of using loudspeakers to campaign and exploiting religion by describing those who don’t vote for Al-Nour as "sinners."
However, Sheikh Abdel Khaleq Mohamed, the candidate who heads Al-Nour’s party list in Suez, strongly denied the accusations, saying they were "completely false."
Al-Tagammu Party’s candidate running for the workers seat in Suez, Abdel-Hamid Kamal, said on his Facebook page that he was subjected to a smear campaign, accusing him of "atheism" and "communism," in addition to rumors that he died and dropped out of the run-offs.
A former MP, Kamal is running against Al-Nour’s Hani Nour El-Din.
In Ismailia, the FJP and Al-Nour hurled accusations against their rival candidates who are former members of the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP).
FJP’s Ismail said there were reports of vote-buying by ex-NDP members.
"There’s also a great possibility that our Christian brothers will vote for felool [remnants of the old regime] rather than the Islamists," he said.
FJP candidate Mohamed Hisham El-Soly faced off against ex-NDP Mohamed Ghannam for the professionals seat, while Mohamed Hawwary of Al-Nour Party competed against Eissa Zein El-Abidine, also an ex-NDP, for the workers seat.
Hassan said Zein El-Abidine launched a vicious campaign to slander and libel Hawwary.
However, Hassan and El-Bedeiwy believed it was very unlikely that the people of Ismailia would favor remnants of the former corrupt regime over the Islamists.
"Ismailia is a very small governorate and the felool are well known," said El-Bedeiwy.
In Sohag, Mohamed Abdel Rehim, an elections monitor with the Egyptian Association for Social Participation, said there were clashes between FJP and Al-Nour candidate representatives.
In Gerga, altercations between supporters of FJP’s Adel Moneim Aboul Fotouh and military forces were also reported as his supporters used microphones to campaign for him outside polling stations.
Abdel Rehim said that military forces confiscated the microphones.
He added that subcommittees 164 and 165 were closed for an hour and a half around mid-day for no apparent reason.
There are 59 seats up for grabs in the run-offs. The FJP is fielding 49 candidates, while Al-Nour Party is fielding 36. The Free Egyptians Party, which spearheads the liberal Egyptian Bloc, is fielding two candidates, one in Menufiya and the other in Boulaq in Giza governorate.
In Menufiya, Mohamed Anwar Ahmed Esmat El-Sadat is the only candidate who won an absolute majority for the professional seat in the city’s second constituency Tala.
The Islamists swept the polls in the first two rounds, winning almost 70 percent of the party list votes in each round.
