Two rounds of voting out of three have been undertaken in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, with the Muslim Brotherhood scoring approximately one fourth of the total seats. But after its initial strong showing in the relatively peaceful first round, the government took the initiative to crack down on the organization by arresting hundreds of its members during the second round.
DAMANHOUR, Egypt: Police arrested hundreds of activists from Egypt????????s strongest opposition group and thugs trying to intimidate voters shot dead a man in legislative elections yesterday.
The thugs shot Mohamed Ibrahim in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and set fire to 20 cars, witnesses and a medical source said. A hospital source said an independent candidate in Alexandria was stabbed in the stomach.
It was not clear for whom the thugs were working. Monitoring groups reported widespread use of armed gangs by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to intimidate voters in the second stage of voting for parliament.
Thugs attacked supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the strongest opposition force in Egypt, they said. The police arrested 400 Brotherhood activists late on Saturday and yesterday, a security source said.
Brotherhood candidates more than doubled their strength in parliament in the first stage of the elections earlier this month by winning 21% of the 164 seats contested. The NDP won 68%. First-stage violence was limited.
But the Independent Committee on Election Monitoring (ICEM), one of several groups watching the polls more closely than ever, said violence had increased in the second stage.
???????Observers have reported that organised teams of thugs, primarily NDP supporters, are engaging in criminal activities such as threatening and preventing voters from accessing polling stations,??????? it said.
Monitoring group Sawasya said in Alexandria gangs, under police supervision, had used sticks, knives and police dogs to ???????terrorise??????? voters and supporters of Brotherhood candidate Tawakol Masoud.
Thugs also smashed shop windows in the Nile Delta town of Damanhour, where prominent Brotherhood candidate Gamal Heshmat is standing, locals said.
???????They were sent by the NDP. They know the entire area is with Heshmat. They are trying to scare people from voting,??????? market trader Mohamed Ibrahim said.
The second round of voting was held in the city of Alexandria, known as a stronghold for the Muslim Brotherhood, where the group would probably gain an even larger share of seats than it had before. After such a strong showing, the government must have been afraid of an even larger increase in seats in the forthcoming rounds. The widespread violence was aimed at preventing voters from casting their ballots for the Muslim Brotherhood during the second round. It still wasn’t as bad as previous years, but with the results from the first round already known, the actions undertaken by the government underlie a sense of lost legitimacy.