CAIRO,
December 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The third and last round of
Egypt's legislative elections turned bloody Thursday, December 1,
after security forces killed one citizen and wounded more than seventy
others and blocked thousands of voters from casting their ballot,
prompting judges supervising the process to threaten a walk-out.
In
the northern Nile Delta town of Baltim, a man identified as Gomaa
Saeed al-Zeftawi, 55, was killed after a tear gas canister hit his
chest.
He
was a supporter of Hamdeen Sabahi, Arab Dignity party founder, says
IslamOnline.net's correspondent.
Medical
sources and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said he was
killed by police, who responded to stone-throwing with rubber bullets
and eventually live rounds.
A
driver of an independent candidate was killed in Alexandria in the
second stage of elections.
The
two previous rounds of voting says the officially banned but tolerated
Muslim Brotherhood secure 79 seats in the new parliament.
The
ruling National Democratic Party'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.
Blocking
Voting
Tempers
flared as voters were prevented from reaching polling stations in
several constituencies.
Voters
of all ages and sexes were seen in many villages climbing over walls
with rickety wooden ladders to enter polling stations whose main
entrances were blocked off by phalanxes of riot police.
The
Brotherhoods accused security forces of preventing voters from casting
their ballot to prevent the group from building on its splendid gains
so far.
"The
security forces do not allow voters to reach the ballot boxes in
Mansoura constituency except when they show NDP membership cards or
when they carry the billboards of NDP candidates," the groups
said in a statement.
In
Dakahlia, central Delta, where 18 Muslim Brotherhood members are
running the race reports by different civil society groups and human
rights organizations accused policemen of curbing the voting.
"Security
forces did not open the polling stations in several constituencies,
and cordoned others to bar candidates from reaching the balloting
boxes," according to an IOL correspondent on the ground.
In
the northern Delta city of Damietta, security forces blocked most of
the polling stations.
In
Sharkiya's Hahya constituency, IOL correspondent said security forces
barring all voters, specially supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood,
while other stations were open before voters.
In
the Nile Delta governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh, Sawasiya human rights
center said five polling stations were sealed off by security forces.
Intimidation
 |
|
Voters
climbed over walls with rickety wooden ladders to enter polling
stations closed by phalanxes of riot police. (Associated Press)
|
The
early hours of the day witnessed several arrests among supporters of
opposition parties, topped by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The
group said some 668 of its supporters were arrested over the past
three days, most of them local campaign managers or volunteers tasked
with mobilizing voters.
In
Mansoura, IOL correspondent said the group's supporters gathered in
the streets around the polling station to protest the police
practices.
Thugs
armed with clubs and empty bottles assaulted the voters who seemed
willing to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood candidates.
"Bottles
were thrown in the air to fall on the ground and break to hurt people,
while others fall on the heads of supporters of the Brotherhood,"
according to an IOL correspondent.
In
Dakahliya's Atmeed constituency, where MB candidate Shafiq el-Deep
competes NDP's Abdel-Wahab el-Adli and independent candidate Murtada
Mansour thugs threatened supporters of the MB from nearing the polling
stations over loudspeakers.
In
the upper Egyptian constituency of Tama, Sawasiya center
representative Islam Tawfiq was attacked by thugs backed by a police
office identified as "Wissam", and his camera was
confiscated and film destroyed.
Judges'
threats
Egyptian
judges have threatened Thursday to walk out "in case the
intimidation of voters continued."
"We
will stop supervising the third stage of balloting in case
psychological and physical pressures exercised on the voters'
continued," Zakariya Abdel Aziz, head of the Egyptian Judges
Union, told IOL.
"The
main electoral committee in each constituency has the right to cancel
the voting in view of intimidation against the voters," he
stressed.
The
union's election follow up and evaluation committee chairman Ahmed
Mekki agreed.
"Barring
voters from reaching the voting stations by security forces was
reported, specially in the Nile Delta governorates," he said.
Sawasiya
human rights center reported Thursday three judges, Khaled Abdel-Aziz,
Hani Mukhtar and Ahmed Abdel-Aziz, were assaulted by thugs under the
nose of policemen.
Yet,
no judges were reported to have quit overseeing the elections.
Judges
have mounted an unprecedented challenge against the state, securing
more guarantees of transparency and publicly denouncing irregularities
in the previous rounds.
The
union had vowed to post some of its members in the streets to ensure
access so polling stations but their action appeared to have had
little impact.
Last
week, the Judges Union pressed for army protection to shield its
members against attacks by thugs in the current parliamentary
elections.
Western
Concerns
The
violations reported by opposition parties, journalists and independent
monitors in last week's second phase runoffs have raised concerns with
some Western countries.
A
senior British Embassy diplomat was touring a number of polling
stations in the northern governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh, according to
Aljazeera news channel.
It
said the diplomat seemed on a mission to observe the voting, after
reports on wide-scale violence, vote-buying and police intimidation in
the two previous stages.
IslamOnline.net
also learnt that two member of the ruling Labour Party in Britain will
visit Cairo on December 5-7 for meetings on the election process in
the most populous Arab state.
Washington,
a close alley of the Egyptian regime, has urged Cairo to provide an
atmosphere allowing voters to cast ballot without the threat of
violence.
"The
Egyptian government has a responsibility to provide an atmosphere for
its people in which they can feel as though they are not encumbered,
they are not barred from or under the threat of violence or
coercion," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack
Wednesday, November 30.
IOL
Correspondents Nasiba Dawood, Wesam Al-Dowaik, Samer Elatrash, Ahmed
Fathy and Hamdy Al Husseini contributed to this story.
