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Egypt: 26 percent turnout in elections
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-11 10:49
CAIRO, Egypt - Just one quarter of registered voters cast ballots in the
monthlong 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 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.
Twelve seats will be decided in run-offs, while 10 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.
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