Turnout brisk in Egyptian elections

EGYPTIANS FLOCKED to the polls yesterday in the second round of a parliamentary election in which two Muslim fundamentalist parties expect to boost their substantial lead. Last month these two parties, Freedom and Justice and Noor, won 61 per cent of the votes cast in the first round.

Voting, which concludes today, is taking place in nine provinces, where 18 million eligible voters will cast ballots for 3,000 candidates competing for 180 seats in the 498-member people’s assembly.

Among urban voters expected to opt for secular parties are residents of Giza, Cairo’s twin city, and of neighbourhoods on the edge of the desert where the pyramids stand. The vast majority of voters in this round are, however, from poor working class and rural districts, strongholds of Freedom and Justice, the political arm of the moderate Muslim Brotherhood, and Noor, a party recently founded by ultra-orthodox Salafis. The latter, ironically, opposed the uprising that ousted 30-year president Hosni Mubarak and made possible Egypt’s first ever free assembly election.

Turnout has been high in most constituencies, with voters ready to stand in line to cast ballots after decades of boycotting fraudulent elections.

The new parliament will have limited legislative powers because the military council, which exercises executive powers, will continue to have a veto. The council says it will appoint governments and 80 of the 100 members of a commission charged with drafting a new constitution.