CAIRO,
November 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Muslim
Brotherhood has further built its strength in Egypt's parliament,
winning 29 seats this weekend in legislative elections despite
restrictions on voting, the group said on Sunday, November 27.
Well-placed
sources at polling stations told IslamOnline.net that the group won 29
seats in the run-off the polls' second phase.
The
group, which is officially outlawed but enjoys soaring popularity, has
now won 76 seats in the chamber with slightly less than a third of the
places still to be contested.
The
victory came despite police had restricted voting and detained more
than 800 of the Brotherhood's activists before and during the
elections on Saturday, November 26.
Brotherhood
deputy leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters the wins showed the strength
of his group, which is only contesting one third of parliament's 444
elected seats but poses the strongest challenge to the ruling National
Democratic Party (NDP).
The
Brotherhood had 15 seats in the outgoing chamber. Habib said the group
would field 49 candidates in the third and final round of voting which
begins on December 1.
In
the second phase of the polls, which took place on November 20, the
NDP only garnered eight seats while the Brotherhood won 13 outright,
bringing its tally half-way through the polls to 47. In the first
round, the group won 47 seats compared with 114 for the NDP (after
accepting back some 48 renegades, who ran as independents).
The
NDP's dominance in parliament is not at risk, but the seemingly
inexorable rise of the Brotherhood has thrown the issue of their
legalization as a party wide open.
Downfall
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Police restricted voting in areas contested by the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday.
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The
second run-off has also witnessed the downfall of prominent and
veteran NDP figures, chiefly former agriculture minister Yusuf Wali,
who gained notoriety after press reports that carcinogenic pesticides
were imported at his directives.
Other
key NDP losers included Mohammad Abdellah, the president of Alexandria
University and member of Gamal Mubarak's NDP Policy Committee, and
Labour Union leader Sayed Rashid.
Veteran
leader of the Leftist Tagamu party Khaled Mohiddin, 87, also lost to
Muslim Brotherhood candidate Taymour Abdel Ghani. Senior party leader
Al-Badri Farghali further conceded defeat.
Egyptian
police restricted voting in areas contested by the opposition Muslim
Brotherhood on Saturday.
Thousands
of riot police deployed in constituencies where the Muslim Brotherhood
was fielding a candidate, in many cases sealing off polling stations
or severely limiting the number of people who could go in and vote.
Some
judges packed up early in protest and took ballot boxes away with
them. Others cancelled voting in three constituencies for police
intimidation.
Muslim
Brotherhood spokesman Abdel Muezz Mohammad told Reuters Saturday that
56 judges had refused to take part in the count because of flagrant
violations during the day's voting.
Altogether
more than 11,000 judiciary personnel are supervising the process.
