CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood’s party list has secured about 40 percent of votes counted so far in the second round of Egypt’s staggered parliamentary election, a party source said on Sunday.
The list led by the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won about 37 percent of votes in the first round.
The poll, held over six weeks, is the first since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February. Official results have not been released but party representatives watch the count and their predictions after the first round were broadly accurate.
The third and final round of voting takes place in January.
The FJP source said the 40 percent estimate was based on counting completed in 11 of the 15 second-round constituencies where seats will be allocated by party lists.
In a separate statement, the FJP said it was concerned the final result would be skewed against it, saying it had noted differences between its tally and official numbers. It did not specify how the counting may have been flawed.
Independent monitors have listed electoral abuses such as illegal campaigning outside polling stations. The first-round vote in one district of Cairo will be re-run after ballots were lost or damaged during counting.
The election committee has said the violations did not undermine the vote’s overall legitimacy.
Under Egypt’s complicated election system, two thirds of parliament’s 498 elected seats will be allocated to party lists with the rest going to individuals. In the second round, 60 individual seats were up for grabs.
The FJP source said the party expected 45 of its candidates to contest run-off votes for individual seats, where no candidate won the more than 50 percent of votes needed for outright victory.
The source said turnout was around 60 percent, similar to that in the first round.
