HRW said McCormack's remarks undermine the administration's credibility on commitment to Mideast democracy.

CAIRO, December 4, 2004 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A leading international human rights watchdog has blasted the Bush administration's position  over intimidation of voters and arrest of opposition activists by Egyptian authorities, saying Washington has made a mockery of its commitment to Mideast democracy.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the administration's comments on Egyptian parliamentary elections were "utterly disconnected from the reality of what is happening in Egypt today", Reuters reported on Sunday, December 4.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday, December 1, they had not received "any indication that the Egyptian government isn't interested in having peaceful, free and fair elections".

In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, HRW said the remarks badly served "those many Egyptians who have voted or attempted to vote in the face of this pattern of violence, intimidation and fraud."

"It badly undermines the administration's credibility, including your own, when it speaks of its commitment to democratic freedoms in Egypt and the region," the group said.

Independent monitors have reported the use of thugs hired by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to intimidate supporters of opposition candidates and voters.

IOL has revealed that Egyptian security agents directed machete- and club-wielding gangs in attacks against voters and supporters of opposition candidates in the second round of voting.

The third round turned bloody Thursday after security forces killed one citizen and wounded more than seventy others and blocked thousands of voters from casting their ballot.

More Arrests

Aryan said some 200 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested Sunday.

Some 200 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested Sunday, December 3, three days before the final round's runoffs.

Essam El-Aryan, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood figure, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) most of the Muslim Brothers detained were nabbed in the Nile Delta regions north of Cairo where runoffs are to be held on Wednesday.

He said hundreds of Muslim Brothers were detained over the past week but added that most of those rounded up during the first two phases of voting in the month-long elections have been released.

The Muslim Brotherhood has 35 candidates involved in the runoffs, which will wrap up the country's month-long phased elections.

Having secured 76 seats in the first two phases -- five times their current seat tally -- the officially banned group is hoping to reach the symbolic 100 seat mark.

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.