"Elections" in "Democratic" Egypt

Supporters of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated yesterday in Alexandria as Egyptian police conducted mass arrests of Brotherhood members.



National Democratic Party thugs beat supporters of the opposition in Alexandria.



National Democratic Party thugs, armed with bats, were supported by police in a confrontation with Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

From L'Orient-Le Jour. Legislative elections in Egypt produced a first death as a wave of mass arrests marked Hosni Mubarak's intention block the way of Muslim Brotherhood in winning seats in the national legislature. On day one of the second phase of voting, the driver for an independent candidate was beaten to death by NDP thugs in the port city of Alexandria. Mohammed Khalil was dead on arrival at Ras el-Tine Hospital.

Also in Alexandria, independent candidate Seif Eddine al-Kabbari, a NDP dissident, was stabbed in the stomach. Before polls opened, 400 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested in Port Said, Alexandria, Gharbiya in the north and Luxor and Fayoum in the south

Mr. Mubarak's NDP dominates 80% of the national legislature and won 112 seats out of 164 in the first round of the elections. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood won 34 seats, an historic record. Elections observers deployed by NGOs denounced scenes of intimidation and violence by NDP thugs. The Egyptian government blamed the opposition for the violence.

An AFP correspondent in Alexandira witnessed an army of NDP thugs as they lay siege to polling stations in the Karmouz quarter of Alexandria. According to another AFP correspondent in Ismaïliya, four were wounded in a clash between NDP and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. A riot in Port Said left scores of wounded.

144 seats will be decided in the second phase of elections and another 136 seat will be up for grabs in December.