CAIRO, Nov 30, (Agencies): Egypt awaited the final results on Tuesday of a parliamentary election that is set to deliver sweeping gains for President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party and all but shut out the Islamist opposition.
Rights groups say the vote was marked by widespread violence and fraud, and the White House expressed disappointment at the way the election was conducted, calling reports of numerous irregularities “worrying.”
According to government daily Al-Ahram, the National Democratic Party (NDP) won more than 170 of 508 seats in the first round on Sunday while the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition party, failed to win a single seat outright.
The Islamists threatened to pull out of an election they have already denounced as “rigged and invalid.” “We are studying whether or not to continue” participating, senior Brotherhood member Mohammed Mursi told a news conference in Cairo ahead of next Sunday’s runoff.
Al-Ahram and Al-Masri Al-Yom newspapers said Egypt’s secular opposition only won six seats, three of which went to the liberal Wafd party.
Wafd urged the election commission to delay the announcement of results until it has investigated voting complaints, charging that the government had failed to respect “the presidential promise to guarantee transparent elections.”
Official results will be announced at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the electoral commission. “An assembly without opposition,” ran the headline of the independent daily Al-Shuruk, adding that “the NDP will essentially be competing against itself” in next Sunday’s voting.
Egyptians voted last Sunday for the 508 elected seats in the lower house, or People’s Assembly, many of which were contested by rival candidates of Mubarak’s NDP.
Egyptian monitoring groups reported deadly violence, vote rigging and the intimidation of opposition candidates across the country on election day.
In Washington, White House national security spokesman Mike Hammer said “the United States is disappointed with the conduct during and leading up to Egypt’s November 28 legislative elections.”
Egypt’s leading opposition group dismissed on Tuesday the results of parliamentary elections as “invalid,” but nevertheless said its candidates would participate in weekend runoffs.
The fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood has predicted its lawmakers will be almost entirely swept out of parliament by what it said was rampant rigging, intimidation and vote-buying — allegations echoed by rights groups. That would be a huge blow to the most powerful opposition group, which shocked the ruling National Democratic Party in the last election in 2005 by winning 88 seats, or a fifth of parliament. A sustained government crackdown has since weakened the group.
Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie said President Hosni Mubarak’s government had broken its promise to hold clean elections, but vowed his group would not resort to violence.
“We will not allow anyone to tempt us into breaking the law,” he told a news conference. “The crimes committed by the regime clearly reflect its weakness and confusion. ... Whatever is built on falsehood is false,” he added. “The election is invalid.”
Amnesty International urged Egypt on Tuesday to investigate the reported deaths of eight people during Sunday’s parliamentary election and not ignore “damning footage of violence and intimidation.”
“The Egyptian authorities must now open independent investigations into the deaths and allegations of violence that have, once again, cast a bloody shadow over election day,” said Amnesty’s Middle East director Malcolm Smart.
“Egyptian voters should have been able to rely on the security forces to ensure their safety, not pose a threat to it,” he added.
The London-based watchdog said at least eight people died and scores more were wounded across Egypt on Sunday.
Two of the deaths were at the hands of security forces in the southern province of Asyut and the Nile Delta district of Wadi al-Natrun, in circumstances “which may have involved the use of live fire when dispersing crowds,” Amnesty said.
The other deaths were believed to have been the result of clashes between rival political parties.