Polls open in final stage of Egyptian election

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- Egyptians began voting on Wednesday in the third and final stage of parliamentary elections that are certain to keep President Hosni Mubarak's party firmly in power.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) in the capital and the governorates of Giza, Qaliubya, Beni Suef, Menya, Assiut, New Valley and Marsa Matrouh. They were due to close at 7 p.m.

Voters were picking 160 legislators for the 454-seat People's Assembly, where Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) held 94 percent of the seats, including 10 filled by presidential nominees, after the last poll in 1995.

In the first two stages of voting for 284 seats, the NDP took 224, many of them won by independents who had failed to win the NDP's nomination but rejoined the party after the vote.

Non-Islamist independents won 35 seats. Candidates backed by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood gained a surprising 14 seats, despite complaints of harassment. Legal opposition parties won nine. Two seats in Alexandria have yet to be decided.

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