Mubarak's party leading Egypt poll, early results show

In this story: News agency says voting 'calm and stable' Judges monitor polling Human rights official claims rolls inaccurate RELATED STORIES, SITES

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party is set to sweep the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, initial results showed on Thursday.

Polling agents in nine governorates counted votes through the night after Wednesday's voting, and security sources said Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP), which held 94 percent of seats in the outgoing parliament, was clearly in the lead.

They said final results were expected by Friday afternoon.

The NDP dominates Egypt's stagnant political system, which excludes Islamic groups. Opposition parties won only 13 of 444 seats contested in the last parliamentary poll in 1995.

The president appoints 10 more People's Assembly members.

RESOURCES Election Watch: Egypt

The influential Moslem Brotherhood, outlawed since 1954, said two of its candidates running as independents had won in the port city of Alexandria, but this could not be confirmed.

News agency says voting 'calm and stable'

Egypt's state-run news agency MENA said polling had been "calm and stable" with a brisk turnout.

Mubarak has told officials to ensure a fair election, in contrast to the last one in 1995 that independent observers said was marred by widespread violence and vote-rigging.

Only minor violence was reported on Wednesday.

The Moslem Brotherhood complained in a statement that security forces were making life hard for its candidates.

"Where is the cleanness that the president is calling for?" Islamic candidate Ahmed Abu Baraka said in another statement.

"We now ask the president, since he succeeded in mediating between the Palestinians and the Jews on the holy land of Egypt, to mediate between Islamists and security agencies," he said.

Abu Baraka was referring to a summit hosted by Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh this week at which U.S. President Bill Clinton brokered an agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to halt three weeks of violence.

Judges monitor polling

The government has spread voting over three stages, with the second and third phases on October 29 and November 8, to comply with a court order that said judges must supervise voting.

In the first round, voters in Alexandria, Beheira, Menoufiya, Ismailia, Suez, Port Said, Fayoum, Sohag and Qena governorates were choosing 150 deputies from 1,262 candidates.

Opposition Wafd Party candidate Othman Ibrahim said on Wednesday the vote had been freer than in previous elections.

"Judges are controlling the process and police are staying away from the polling booths," he said in Sohag, in southern Egypt.

Human rights official claims rolls inaccurate

While election procedures appeared to have improved, human rights activists said voters had few real choices.

"Opposition parties do not have any chance to mobilize the voters," Hafez Abu Seda, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, told Reuters.

He said electoral rolls were inaccurate, containing duplicate names, as well as those of dead people.

Abu Seda said opposition parties were very weak due to the constraints of emergency law, in force since Muslim militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

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