First day of Egyptian run-offs sees low voter turnout

CaptionThe Muslim Brotherhood seems to be on the path to political majority Candidates from the liberal Egyptian Bloc have been using religious rhetoric in their election leaflets to try to combat Islamist parties, who were the biggest winners in the first round of voting , Egyptian website Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. The website cited evidence obtained from Cairo's second district, where obtained leaflets opened with a Qu'ranic verse from Chapter 18 that read: "They were young men who believed in their Lord (Allah), and We increased them in guidance. "
    The leaflet described Egyptian Bloc candidate Mohamed Abdel Ghany, running in the second constituency — which encompasses the districts of Zeitoun, Amireyah, Waily and Hadayeq al-Qobba — as a "defender of religion who refuses to abuse it for political ends."
    It says he "participated in designing and building mosques but has never abused his achievements like others have" and describes him as someone "who has unwavering faith in God".
    The exposure might prove to be unfortunate for the liberal Bloc, who have been trying to publicise themselves as a non-partisan, non-religious party that serves to represent the entire country.
    The first day of run-off polls for the first round of the Egyptian elections that began on November 28 in nine governorates began Monday, with polling stations witnessing a low voter turnout compared to the that in the first round which reached 62 per cent.
    Although polling stations in Cairo remained calm and tightly secured by security forces, the voter turnout was higher in other governorates.
    Until now, there were no reports of delays as it was in the first round, when the opening of 25 polling stations had been delayed till 9am.
    The run-offs take place in 27 constituencies in nine governorates: Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, Luxor, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Port Said, the Red Sea, Damietta and Fayoum. This round will determine 52 winners out of 104 candidates.
    The run-offs are for single-winner candidates rather than list-based ones. Only four candidates for the single-winner seats have been declared winners.
    Islamist groups have a strong presence in the run-offs. Out of the 104 candidates, 48 belong to the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and 36 to the Salafi-led Al-Nour Party. The Egyptian Bloc, a coalition of liberal and leftist parties, has 14 candidates. The Wafd Party and Egypt National Party each have one candidate, and there are four independent candidates.
    Some human rights group said this morning that certain candidates have continued their campaigning in front of polling stations, which is against the law.
    Meanwhile, the head of the High Election Commission (HEC), Abdel Moez Ibrahim held a meeting, Sunday to discuss the preparation of the run-off vote in the parliamentary elections.
    In addition, a senior member of the technical office of the HEC, Alaa Qoutb said in a press statement that the commission had studied the electoral system, saying two-thirds of the 498 seats would be picked by proportional representation, using lists drawn up by parties or alliances. Seats will be allocated proportionally based on a party's showing in each of  the 46 districts.
    The remaining third, or 166 seats are open to individuals, who may or may not have party affiliations, two from each of 83 districts.
    Of the individual candidates, half must be "professionals" and the rest "workers" or "farmers".
    A winner must achieve more than 50 per cent of the votes in a district or face a run-off. If a professional wins one seat, the second seat must go to a farmer or worker, although both seats can go to farmers and workers.
In a related context, member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Maj. Gen. Ismail Etman said: "The turnout is not low; we can just say it’s not as high as it was in the first round."
 He also confirmed that Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the SCAF was following the elections in its run off votes of the first round.
Etman said that, he had visited some of polling stations and they were secured by the army and the interior ministry, besides the judicial oversight.
On his part, the head of the technical office of the High Election Commission, Yussri Abdel Kreem, confirmed that the commission had not received any provisions of the judicial to stop voting in any polling stations that opened at 8am.
 Last week, residents in a third of districts including Cairo and second-city Alexandria cast ballots at the start of the multi-stage polls, choosing a party and two candidates for a new 498-seat lower house of parliament.
 In the party returns, Islamists picked up at least 65 per cent of votes, with the more moderate Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in first place with 36.6 per cent and the hardline Salafist Al-Nour party in second with 24.4 per cent.
The surge in Salafist groups, which advocate a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia, was a surprise and raised fears among increasingly marginalised liberals about civil liberties and religious freedom.
 Sunday also brought news of the first violence since voting began when the driver of a liberal candidate died in a gunfight with supporters of the moderate Al-Wasat party in the northern Manufia province, local reports said.
The new parliament will be tasked, in theory, with selecting a 100-member panel to draft the new constitution. If Islamist parties dominate, more liberal forces worry the constitution will be greatly influenced by the religious perceptive.
 The build up to the election was ominous, with 42 people killed and more than 3,000 injured in violent protests against the interim military regime that is overseeing the country's transition to democracy.
 The Brotherhood’s FJP had been widely forecast to triumph in the first free election in decades.
It is the country’s most organised political group despite being officially banned for decades and is well known for its charity work and opposition to Mubarak’s 30-year regime.
The Brotherhood worked for many years providing basic needs for health care and other social services the government failed to deliver and were well know throughout the country.
In contrast, the liberal youth groups behind the uprising failed to form a cohesive, unified front. He said they only formed political parties two months ago.
"I should say even if they continued to coalesce into a cohesive bloc, they would not have been able to compete fairly and squarely right now," said presidential hopeful and Nobel Prize laureate Mohammed ElBaradei. "They don't have the resources, they don't know the techniques. ... They haven't connected with the people on the street," he said.
 Leaders were at pains to stress during campaigning that they were committed to multi-party democracy, inclusiveness and civil liberties, while also advocating the application of sharia (Islamic law).
 Parliamentary candidate Abdul-Moneim al-Shahat last week raised hackles when he accused the late Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel prize winner, of “inciting promiscuity, prostitution and atheism.”
 “Since forming our party, it has been the party that worked most on the ground and brought up issues such as education and the economy,” Al-Nour’s head Emad Eddin Abdul Ghaffour told AFP on Sunday.
ElBaradei stated that the liberal youth behind the country's uprising have been "decimated" in the parliamentary elections. He said he hoped moderate Islamists would rein in the extremists and send a reassuring message to the world that Egypt would stride an ultra-conservative religious path.
"The youth feel let down. They don't feel that any of the revolution's goals have been achieved," he told The Associated Press news agency. "They got decimated," he said, adding the youth failed to unify and form "one essential critical mass."
 He predicted the Muslim Brotherhood would prefer to form an alliance with the liberals rather than the Salafis to get a majority in parliament. The liberal Egyptian Bloc – which came in third with 13.4 per cent of the votes – could counterbalance hard-line elements.
There were few bright spots for the liberal secular movement which played a key role in the 18-day uprising that led Mubarak to stand down and hand power to a council of army leaders.
 The main liberal coalition, the Egyptian Bloc, won just 1.29 million out of 9.73 million votes cast, or 13.4 percent.
 Mohammed Hamed, a candidate with the liberal Free Egyptians party, warned that the Islamists would face widespread resistance if they enforced a strict interpretation of Islam.
 “All the people will turn into the opposition. Most Muslims are not extremist,” he told AFP.
 The results in Egypt fit a pattern established in Tunisia and Morocco where Islamists have also gained in elections as they benefit from the new freedoms brought by the pro-democracy movements of the Arab Spring.
Meanwhile, newly appointed interim prime minister Dr. Kamal El-Ganzouri stated he finished forming his cabinet except for the Interior portfolio that would be selected either Sunday or Monday.
General Mamdouh Abd El Haq, a SCAF member, said that the council inclined to a degree of dictatorship in assigning Ganzouri to form the cabinet justifying their confidence in the man and his history of public work.
Abd El Haq added, in a TV interview on Al Mehwar TV, that "Tahrir Square is not Egypt and doesn’t represent Egypt at all and everyone sitting in the square represents only himself."
He also said: “The Egyptian People toppled a dictatorship by their hands in an unarmed revolution and we won’t allow another dictator to rule again.” He also denied that the Interior portfolio wouldn't go to any of the generals of SCAF and there would be no participation on their part in any cabinet.