Last update - 00:00 11/06/2007
One killed, four wounded in Egyptian election-day violence
By News Agencies
One man was shot dead and four injured in Egypt on Monday in clashes between supporters of rival candidates in elections for the upper house of parliament, police sources said.
Ahmed Abdel Salam Ghanem, a supporter of independent candidate Mohamed Dia Mahmoud, was killed in the Nile Delta province of Sharkia in fighting with supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party, they said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in the country, had no candidate in that area and was not involved.
Voting in the election kicked off Monday, pitting the president's ruling party against the country's powerful Islamic opposition group, which is participating in Shura Council elections for the first time.
The Muslim Brotherhood's decision to field 19 candidates in Monday's elections comes amid a large scale government crackdown on the group. The Brotherhood, which is Egypt's largest Islamic opposition group, has been banned since 1954 but continues to operate with its lawmakers running as independents in elections.
Security was intense Monday morning at the Manshiyat al-Qanater polling
station in Giza, where Brotherhood candidate Sayeed Saleh was competing for a seat. Although voting officially started at 8:00am (0500 GMT), police dressed in riot gear sealed off the building and ordered voters to leave the premises.
"It seems that there is no election today, said Alya Lutfi, a 23-year-old
accountant standing outside the polling station. We are not allowed to enter to vote. I don't understand what is going on."
Previous Shura Council elections have witnessed low voter turnout, a
reflection of widespread apathy toward the 264-seat consultative body that gained limited legislative powers from recent constitutional amendments.
Only 176 members of the Shura Council are directly elected for six-year terms, while the president appoints the remaining 88. Elections and appointments are executed on a rotating basis, with one half of the council renewed every three years.
In Monday's elections, 587 candidates are competing for 88 seats in 24
provinces, 109 from the ruling National Democratic Party, 19 from the
Brotherhood and the remainder from smaller opposition groups or running as independents. Two principal opposition parties, al-Wafd and Nasserite, are boycotting the elections.
Egyptian newspapers reported Monday that 11 of the 88 seats were uncontested and went to candidates from the NDP.
Despite the small number of Brotherhood candidates, the group's announcement in April that it would compete for Shura Council elections was significant because it came just three weeks after a controversial constitutional amendment intended to limit the organization's political participation.
Prior to Monday's elections, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's party had
asked the High Election Commission to disqualify 17 of the Brotherhood's
candidates. But the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the request late Sunday.