The Muslim Brotherhood readied for an electoral showdown with President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party after surprising the country with a record seat tally in the first phase.

The second of three rounds kicked off at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) in nine governorates.

While the NDP's dominance was not in doubt after securing 112 out of 164 seats up for grabs in the first phase, the Muslim Brotherhood won a surprise 34 constituencies, twice its tally in 2000.

The first phase, centered on Cairo, ended on Wednesday, November 16, amid accusations of widespread irregularities from monitoring organizations and opposition parties.

It also signaled the demise of the secular opposition, with presidential runner-up and Ghad party leader Ayman Nur crashing to defeat in his own stronghold and an alliance of other parties failing to make any impact.

The second phase will see close to 1,800 candidates battle it out over 144 seats. Any runoffs will take place on November 26, before the final phase starts on December 1.

Similarly strong showings in the next two phases would give the Muslim Brotherhood close to 100 seats in parliament.

Legal parties need five percent of parliament -- or 25 seats -- to field a candidate in presidential elections.

But independents require the approval of at least 65 members, according to a recent constitutional amendment which the Brotherhood says was designed to prevent it from running.

Mustafa Kamel al-Sayed, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, predicted that the regime "will never accept a massive parliamentary representation for the Brothers."

In a show of force, the Brotherhood stage a demonstration of some 20,000 women in the streets of Alexandria Friday night.

However, the Brotherhood announced that it has withdrawn its candidate running in the Moharrem Bek constituency against a Christian Copt from the NDP.

The Alexandria neighborhood saw violent clashes a month ago after the CD release of a Christian play deemed offensive to Islam.