Some voters barred from casting ballot in Egypt
Mansoura: Abdul Latif Farhat waited for more than an hour in order to cast his vote a few metres from a polling station in this Nile Delta town, but it was to no avail.
Thugs, allegedly hired by candidates from the ruling National Democratic Party, did not allow him as well as other voters suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest but banned group, to enter the polling station.
"It is absurd that the government and the ruling party keep saying that the elections are fair and all facilities are in place for voters to exercise their constitutional right," said Farhat. "The thugs are imposing their law under the noses of the security forces, who are doing nothing," he told Gulf News before deciding to go home for his personal safety.
Supporters of rival candidates threatened to smash photographers' cameras if they dared snap photos outside the school turned polling centre.
Voters and representatives of candidates in yesterday's legislative elections complained about getting barred from reaching polling stations.
The complaint was substantiated by the state-backed National Council for Human Rights, which said in a report that preventing voters from having access to polling stations had accounted for 50 per cent of the complaints received by its operations room.
Normal
While admitting the violations, Ali Eddin Helal, a senior official in President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, said they were normal because "rivalry for the parliamentary seats is very high".
But this rivalry took a deadly turn as the Ministry of Health confirmed in a statement that five people died in different parts of Egypt.
The son of an independent candidate was stabbed to death in Al Mataria, a working-class area in northern Cairo, while pasting posters on Saturday night. Another voter died in the Delta province of Menufia, around 60km north of Cairo, allegedly during a clash inside a polling station.
Nagui Omran, a 55-year-old teacher, died during a clash inside the polling station when he was not allowed to vote because his name was not in the electoral list, said witnesses. However, the official Middle East News Agency quoted Menufia Governor Sami Mahmoud as saying that Moran had died of a heart attack.
A 38-year-old man was killed during a brawl among supporters of candidates in Qena, Upper Egypt.
The fifth fatality was identified as Nafisa Abdul Hamid, 79, who died after suffering a diabetic coma inside a polling station in Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city.
Meanwhile, police used tear gas in the Delta province of Samanud, some 80km north of Cairo to disperse knife-wielding supporters of candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling party who clashed. Six people were injured and a car was damaged during the clash, an eyewitness told Gulf News.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which fielded independent candidates to circumvent an official decades-long ban, contested the elections with 130 contenders amid speculation that the group will not repeat the 2005 election results when it clinched a fifth of the parliament's seats.
Vote buying was rife in constituencies, where election was hotly contested, according to local monitors.
They added that in Mena Al Basal in Alexandria, a businessman running for a parliament seat, was buying votes for 150 pounds (Dh95) each.
Hours before the polling stations closed at 7pm (5pm GMT) a relatively high turnout was reported in rural areas where candidates' family links are strong.
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Thugs, allegedly hired by candidates from the ruling National Democratic Party, did not allow him as well as other voters suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest but banned group, to enter the polling station.
"It is absurd that the government and the ruling party keep saying that the elections are fair and all facilities are in place for voters to exercise their constitutional right," said Farhat. "The thugs are imposing their law under the noses of the security forces, who are doing nothing," he told Gulf News before deciding to go home for his personal safety.
Supporters of rival candidates threatened to smash photographers' cameras if they dared snap photos outside the school turned polling centre.
Voters and representatives of candidates in yesterday's legislative elections complained about getting barred from reaching polling stations.
The complaint was substantiated by the state-backed National Council for Human Rights, which said in a report that preventing voters from having access to polling stations had accounted for 50 per cent of the complaints received by its operations room.
Normal
While admitting the violations, Ali Eddin Helal, a senior official in President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, said they were normal because "rivalry for the parliamentary seats is very high".
But this rivalry took a deadly turn as the Ministry of Health confirmed in a statement that five people died in different parts of Egypt.
The son of an independent candidate was stabbed to death in Al Mataria, a working-class area in northern Cairo, while pasting posters on Saturday night. Another voter died in the Delta province of Menufia, around 60km north of Cairo, allegedly during a clash inside a polling station.
Nagui Omran, a 55-year-old teacher, died during a clash inside the polling station when he was not allowed to vote because his name was not in the electoral list, said witnesses. However, the official Middle East News Agency quoted Menufia Governor Sami Mahmoud as saying that Moran had died of a heart attack.
A 38-year-old man was killed during a brawl among supporters of candidates in Qena, Upper Egypt.
The fifth fatality was identified as Nafisa Abdul Hamid, 79, who died after suffering a diabetic coma inside a polling station in Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city.
Meanwhile, police used tear gas in the Delta province of Samanud, some 80km north of Cairo to disperse knife-wielding supporters of candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling party who clashed. Six people were injured and a car was damaged during the clash, an eyewitness told Gulf News.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which fielded independent candidates to circumvent an official decades-long ban, contested the elections with 130 contenders amid speculation that the group will not repeat the 2005 election results when it clinched a fifth of the parliament's seats.
Vote buying was rife in constituencies, where election was hotly contested, according to local monitors.
They added that in Mena Al Basal in Alexandria, a businessman running for a parliament seat, was buying votes for 150 pounds (Dh95) each.
Hours before the polling stations closed at 7pm (5pm GMT) a relatively high turnout was reported in rural areas where candidates' family links are strong.
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hycastings - 29. Nov, 06:45
