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(Cairo) Continuing its unprecedented show of strength, official results Monday showed the Islamic-based Muslim Brotherhood had locked up about 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats decided after the second of three rounds of balloting, a result that was attributed both to dissatisfaction with the Mubarak regime and a signal of Egypt's increasing conservatism.

The final outcome, however, will almost certainly do nothing to reverse the ruling National Democratic Party's nearly quarter-century grip on power.

The Brotherhood, whose activities are still officially banned, held only 15 seats in the outgoing 454-seat People's Assembly, 10 of which are appointed by President Hosni Mubarak, 77.

But with one round of voting still to come, the group has taken 47 seats outright and sent 41 candidates to a second-round run-off on Saturday. In the third stage of voting, to be held Dec. 1, 136 seats remain to be decided.

Mubarak's NDP held a more than 80 per cent majority in the outgoing legislature, including so-called independent members who voted in lockstep with the government.

But after the first two stages of voting for the new parliament, the NDP and its allies had taken 124 seats or about 66 per cent of the decided seats. The remaining 10 per cent of decided seats in the legislature went to candidates from an assortment of parties independent from the government.

"The people are saying, 'We hate the ruling party, we hate the government and we will get anybody to rule us except you.' It is called voting to punish," said human rights advocate and elections monitor Negad el-Borai.

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[ 26 November 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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Supporters of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said they were attacked Saturday while trying to vote in a runoff for the second round of parliamentary elections. Egyptian authorities have detained hundreds of supporters of the banned Islamist group over the past two days. Brotherhood supporters have made a surprisingly strong performance in early rounds of voting.

Saturday's runoff is to decide 122 seats in nine provinces where no candidate got more than half the vote in the Nov. 20 round. Forty-one of some 240 candidates standing Saturday are members of the Brotherhood.

The group complained that at least 270 of its supporters were detained Saturday in some of the districts participating in the runoff after 53 were detained the night before. A police official confirmed the arrests of at least 140.

[...]

The Brotherhood's surprising success in the polls-- it has already won 47 seats of the 186 seats decided so far, more than tripling its total in the outgoing parliament-- has increased tensions with the ruling party headed by President Hosni Mubarak, which has long dominated the 454-seat body.

The ruling party is expected to maintain that control, having won 122 seats so far.

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They NDP is too friendly to Washington, extremely homophobic, shows complete contempt for civil and political liberties, and has the gall to claim that they are a centre-left party.