LOW TURNOUT, clashes, and accusations of vote-rigging and ballot stuffing marred yesterday’s parliamentary election in Egypt which the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) expects to win by a landslide.
Candidates, party monitors, and voters were prevented from entering polling stations in constituencies where the opposition made good showings in the 2005 assembly election.
Observers from Egyptian human rights organisations complained that they were also denied access even though they had been issued with official permits to oversee the conduct of the poll.
In Cairo, the socialist Tagammu party claimed NDP voters cast ballots twice in one district and there was an exchange of gunfire in another between supporters of NDP and independent candidates.
In the southern city of Qena, Muslim Brotherhood backers, barred from voting, hurled firebombs at the police. At least 150 Brotherhood supporters were detained around the country.
By cracking down hard ahead of the poll on the Brotherhood – Egypt’s largest opposition movement – the government sought to dramatically reduce its representation from 88 to 10-15 seats.
Supporters of the secular Wafd, which is aligned to the NDP, also suffered bullying and exclusion from polling stations. The Higher Election Commission declared balloting invalid at 16 constituencies in five governorates.
Some 5,200 candidates stood for 508 elected seats – 1,100 fielded by 14 parties, 780 of them by the NDP, and 4,100 independents, the overwhelming majority NDP members.
While the NDP has always enjoyed a solid majority since multiparty elections were reintroduced in 1976, the regime is determined to strengthen its hold on parliament ahead of next year’s presidential poll. Ailing president Hosni Mubarak remains the only, but undeclared candidate.
Of the 40 million eligible to vote, only 10 per cent may have done so; the rest do not register. Run-offs are due for December 5th in constituencies where nobody has secured 51 per cent of the vote.