Egyptians vote in parliamentary elections

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egyptians voted in the second stage of parliamentary polls on Sunday after President Hosni Mubarak's party moved hastily to hide first-round setbacks that were unexpected but did not shake its grip on power.

Around 1,386 candidates were contesting 134 assembly seats in the governorates (administrative districts) of Gharbia, Damietta, Kafr el-Sheikh, Sharqia, North and South Sinai, the Red Sea, Aswan and Dakahlia in the second round.

The first round of balloting for 150 seats, on October 18, led to run-off elections for 120 seats last week.

RESOURCES Election Watch: Egypt

Official media said the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) had won 118 seats, independents 26, including five for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and opposition parties four, with two seats in an Alexandria constituency yet to be decided.

Initial results had given independents 83 seats, but many of these were swiftly claimed by the NDP -- effectively welcoming back candidates who had run as independents because they had been expelled from the NDP or had failed to win its nomination.

Joining or rejoining the ruling party after the vote is a practice that has been common in previous elections.

The NDP held 94 percent of seats in the last People's Assembly, elected in 1995. Opposition parties won only 13 of the 444 seats contested. The president appoints 10 members of the 454-seat assembly.

Prime Minister Atef Obeid told visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder his country sought to bolster democracy.

"Our...commitment is to strengthen democracy. You see we have a multiparty system, free elections and an independent justice system," Obeid said at a lunch in Schroeder's honor.

Egypt wants to show it can organize parliamentary elections without the violence and blatant vote-rigging that independent observers said marred the 1995 poll.

In the Nile Delta town of Faqous, home to more than 100,000 people about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Cairo, voters filed into polling booths in a calm atmosphere with no overt signs of intimidation or pressure.

"For the first time I feel there is democracy in Egypt," Mohamed Abdel-Fattah Mutwalli, a teacher, said after voting.

For the first time in Egypt, judges, instead of government officials, were supervising polling stations, in compliance with a Constitutional Court ruling in June.

"It's much better this time. There is no chaos. In previous elections, I wouldn't find my name on the list or discover someone had already used it," said voter Salwa Abdullah.

"From A to Z, it's been clean," said the judge in charge of polling in Faqous, asking not to be named. "The police have not been preventing people getting in to vote."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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