Parliamentary vote gives Egypt's ruling party tighter grip

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party consolidated its grip on power in the third and final phase of Egypt's parliamentary elections, unofficial results showed on Thursday.

The NDP won 25 seats of 39 won outright in Wednesday's voting in Cairo and the governorates of Giza, Minya, Qaliubiya, Beni Suef, Assiut, New Valley and Marsa Matrouh, the results showed.

The opposition Wafd Party won one seat, the liberal Ahrar Party took one and independents 12, interior ministry sources said. Run-off elections will take place on Tuesday for the 121 seats where no candidate won more than 50 percent of votes.

The NDP held 94 percent of seats in the outgoing People's Assembly elected in 1995.

Among senior party figures who won seats in the 454-seat house in Wednesday's poll were Fathi Sorour, speaker of the last parliament, Zakaria Azmi, head of Mubarak's office, Housing Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Soleiman and Military Production Minister Sayyed Mishaal.

Mishaal was elected even though an administrative court had ruled three times that he was ineligible because he had registered as a candidate after the official deadline.

None of the candidates backed by the banned Muslim Brotherhood won outright, but seven qualified for the run-off elections, said a Brotherhood member, who asked not to be named.

"It became clear from the first two (election) phases how strong the Brotherhood is," he said. "They (government) decided not to allow more of the group's candidates to win."

Brotherhood spokesman Maamoun Hodeiby and Ahmed Seif-ul Islam Hassan al-Banna, son of the group's founder, were eliminated in Wednesday's voting that witnesses said was marred by scuffling and police interference at some polling stations.

Egyptians voted in the first two phases for 284 seats, of which the NDP won 224. Non-Islamist independents won 35 and opposition parties nine. Two Alexandria seats have yet to be decided. The president names 10 members of the house.

The Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamist group, gained a surprising 14 seats in the first two stages despite complaints of harassment and arrests of its supporters and campaign staff.

Six people have been killed, dozens wounded and at least 200 people arrested in election-related violence -- though the disturbances have been low-key compared to the 1995 election, when at least 60 people were killed.

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

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Egypt State Information Service
The Egyptian Presidency

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