Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood wins 34 seats in run-off vote

The first run-off vote in Egypt's parliamentary election is over The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has won 34 individual seats of the 45 it contested in the first run-off vote of a parliamentary election, a party source said on Wednesday .
The FJP had already secured two clear-cut wins for its individual candidates last week. The run-off was held on Monday and Tuesday.
"The FJP has won 34 individual seats in the run-off vote of the first round out of a total of 45 seats contested by FJP individual candidates," the FJP source said.
A total of 56 individual seats were contested by all parties in the first round of the election, with others assigned to party lists. The vote was the first of three election stages being held over six weeks.
Under a complex system, two-thirds of the 498 elected lower house seats go proportionately to party lists, with the rest going to individual candidates, who must win more than 50 per cent of votes in the first round to avoid a run-off. [Reuters]
Rival Islamists in Egypt’s parliamentary election played up their differences in a first-round run-off vote, with the top-placed Muslim Brotherhood anxious to show a moderate face to Egyptians hungry for stability.
However Egypt's Radio Masr put the turnout at a disappointing 20 per cent compared to 52 per cent in last week's first round.
One of the observers in Al-Malek Al-Saleh School electoral center, Ahmed Ali, said that the decline is due to the lack of serious implementation of the fine leading voters to show no interest in voting, and the lack of candidates in electoral centers, like in the first round.
The run-offs took place for seats in which no individual won 50 per cent or more of the vote in the first round. Voting on Monday was marred by violence by thugs, including gunfire, as well as scuffles between different Islamist groups.
The elections saw even more controversy over judicial pronouncements to cancel the election results in some districts and repeat them, especially El-Sahel district in Cairo. The Supreme Committee recently confirmed its compliance with the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, ordering the cancellation of the election results in El-Sahel, and re-do the elections on January 10 and 11, with the run-offs scheduled on January 17 and 18.
The ruling came after a number of voters and lawyers submitted 25 appeals to stop the elections in the district, following the statement of the head of the Supreme Committee for Elections affirming violations occurring in this district, leading to the elimination of 90 boxes, after proving that they have been tampered with.
Judge Abdel Moez Ibrahim added to Al-Masry Al-Youm that the committee is ready to execute any other rulings received; pointing out that the ruling to hold the elections in the second district in Alexandria was not yet received. He noted that the Supreme Committee has nothing to do with the lack of issuing a decree from SCAF to do the count in sub-committees, and that its role ends at proposing the decree, saying that the count will occur in public committees as long as the legislative amend has not been issued.
The Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badei, said the group would take to the street if there was any poll fraud. Badie also sought to quell fears of the Islamisation of the country and said the Brotherhood is prepared to compromise with the military on the formation of a new government.
The Salafist Al-Nour party, is reported to be considering forming a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, said Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm. "It would be an expansive national coalition, not purely Islamic," Abdel Ghafour, chairman of the Al-Nour party, told the paper. The FJP and its partners in the Democratic Alliance may win as many as half of the seats up for grabs in the first round of the elections, according to Bikyamasr.
Hard-line Salafis were the surprise runner-up in last week’s opening stage, the biggest test of the public mood since street protests ended Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade rule in February.
The Salafi Al-Nour’s Party’s leader Emad Abdel Ghaffour said the Brotherhood may try to paint the Salafis as troublemakers. “We hate being followers,” he told Reuters.
Army generals have ruled a restive Egypt for nine months promising a transition to democratic civilian rule. Mass protests and street clashes in the run-up to the parliamentary vote forced them to bring forward their departure date.
The elected assembly, with its fresh popular mandate, will loom over the ruling military council until the army hands power to an elected president in mid-2012.
Despite its early electoral success, the Brotherhood seems unlikely to seek a showdown with the generals. Egypt’s oldest Islamist group renounced violence long ago and has tended to avoid confrontation in furthering its aims.
After the opening round, the FJP’s party list won 36.6 per cent of valid first-round votes, with Al-Nour’s list winning 24.4 per cent and a liberal Egyptian Bloc on 13.4 per cent.
But one fifth of the FJP’s list included a variety of smaller parties that included the liberal Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party and the left-leaning Karama (Dignity), a precedent for possible cooperation between the Brotherhood and liberals.
Al-Nour - which allegedly wants to stop visitors wearing bikinis on the beach and ban alcohol, a death knell for tourism - quit an electoral alliance with the FJP before the vote, accusing the FJP of hogging too many seats on the list.
The Brotherhood’s rivals say it bent campaigning rules by lobbying for votes outside polling stations. The movement said its rivals should accept the result as the will of the people.
Its early success was no surprise given its large network of activists and decades of grass-roots charity work.
But the strong showing by Salafis was a shock for many liberal Muslims and for Coptic Christians, who make up a tenth of Egypt’s 85-million population.
“We still have high hopes that the silent majority in the coming two phases will go to the ballot boxes and we still rely on a comeback by the liberal wing,” said Youssef Sidhom, editor-in-chief of Orthodox Coptic newspaper Al-Watani.
Even if the Brotherhood consolidates its first-round success, Sidhom said, its more moderate members may prevail.
“They know they cannot honour the responsibility that has been bestowed upon them by the people by only preaching Islamic beliefs and a fundamentalist Islamic way of life,” he said.
The build-up to the election had been ominous, with 42 people killed and more than 3,000 injured in violent protests against the interim military regime that is overseeing Egypt's transition to democracy.