Banned party claims success

2005-11-16 11:11

Cairo - The Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday that it had won 34 seats in the first phase of legislative elections in Egypt, in a major political advance for the banned, but tolerated Islamist group.

The announcement followed a round of run-off voting on Tuesday, which the opposition Muslim Brothers charged was rife with fraud by President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party.

The results more than doubles the Muslim Brotherhood's representation in the national assembly.

Most of the undecided seats pitted candidates from the ruling National Democratic Party against independents running either as NDP renegades or Muslim Brothers.

The NDP controlled 404 of the parliament's 454 seats and observers didn't expect the polls to yield major changes in the balance of power.

Welfare-oriented campaign

But, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and best-organised opposition force in Egypt, had led an aggressive and well-crafted welfare-oriented campaign it hoped would help treble the tally of 15 seats after voting ends next month.

A total of 164 seats were up for grabs in the first phase of the elections, which followed the country's first so far contested presidential election in September, which saw Mubarak returned to office in a landslide.

While the presidential election triggered an unprecedented national debate on reform, the legislative polls were a very local and personalised affair, where votes were lost and won with promises for micro-projects, jobs and bribes.

The elections were being held in three two-round phases. The second round, which included the northern city of Alexandria, was due to kick off on November 20.

All 26 governorates in the country would have finished voting by December 7

- AFP