الرئيسية
By Tom Perry and Marwa Awad, Reuters
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians have voted in a parliamentary
election that could bring Islamists closer to power, though the army
generals who took over from President Hosni Mubarak have yet to step
aside.
The Muslim Brotherhood, expected to do well in the
marathon vote whose first stage drew millions to the polls, said the new
parliament should form a government, setting it at odds with the
military council which has only just named a new prime minister.
The
election for the lower house is due to be held over three phases,
concluding in early January. Early election results were expected to
trickle out on Wednesday.
State television broadcast live footage
of the vote count across Egypt, which has not seen an election this
free since army officers overthrew the monarchy in 1952.
Though
the Brotherhood went into the polls stronger than nascent secular
parties, analysts say it is hard to predict the outcome given that most
of the electorate are casting their ballots for the first time.
Election monitors reported logistical hiccups and campaign violations during the poll but no serious violence.
The
outcome of the election in one of the Middle East's most influential
powers will help shape the future of a region convulsed by uprisings
against decades of autocracy.
Though it did not start the
Egyptian uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a major
beneficiary of the revolt. The group is now eyeing a role in shaping the
country's future.
The Freedom and Justice Party, the
Brotherhood's political wing established earlier this year, said Egypt's
new parliament should form the government.
"A government that is
not based on a parliamentary majority cannot conduct its work in
practice," Mohamed Mursi told reporters during a tour of polling
stations in the working class district of Shubra in Cairo.
"Therefore
we see that it is natural that the parliamentary majority in the coming
parliament will be the one that forms the government," said Mursi,
whose group was outlawed but tolerated under Mubarak, adding:
"We see that it is better for it to be a coalition government built on a majority coalition in the parliament."
SCOPE FOR TENSION
It
was only last week that the military council appointed Kamal
al-Ganzouri, a 78-year-old veteran of the Mubarak era, to form a cabinet
to replace the government of Essam Sharaf, which resigned in the face
of protests against military rule.
A military council member said
at the weekend the new parliament would not have the authority to
dismiss Ganzouri's government or form a new one. Yet observers question
whether the council will be able to resist the will of a chamber elected
in a fair vote, especially if voting carries on smoothly.
A senior figure in the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood said its FJP had done well in the voting so far.
"The Brotherhood party hopes to win 30 percent of parliament," Mohamed El-Beltagy told Reuters.
The
leader of the ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist al-Nour Party, which
hopes to siphon votes from the Brotherhood, said organizational failings
meant his party had underperformed.
But he told Reuters the
party still expected to win up to half of Alexandria's 24 seats in
parliament and, nationwide, 70 to 75 of the assembly's 498 elected
seats.
In one of the military's first reactions to the election's
first phase, General Ismail Atman, a ruling army council member, was
quoted by Al-Shorouk newspaper as saying the poll showed the irrelevance
of protests demanding an end to military rule in Cairo's Tahrir Square
and elsewhere.
The general said turnout would exceed more than 70
percent, though the Brotherhood's Mursi said indications showed a lower
figure of 40 percent.
The success of the first phase has
deflected criticism faced by the military council, which has been under
pressure from street protesters over what they see as the generals'
attempts to maintain power and privilege in the post-Mubarak era.
Last
week was Egypt's most violent since Mubarak was ousted: 42 people were
killed in clashes triggered by the protests against the council.
Unidentified
youths hurled petrol bombs near the square late on Tuesday. A Reuters
witness heard gunshots and the state news agency MENA said two
protesters suffered eye wounds which may have been caused by shots from a
pellet gun.
An organizer of the protest said the trouble started when an unidentified group tried to enter the square.
Many
Egyptians were worried the elections would be bloody. But there has
been little sign of the thugs who were a feature of the rigged elections
of the Mubarak era.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
congratulated Egyptians on the first stage of the election and "the
generally calm and orderly manner in which voting took place," a
statement from his office said.
Les Campbell, of the
Washington-based National Democratic Institute, one of many groups
monitoring the poll, said it was "a fair guess" that turnout would
exceed 50 percent, far above the meager showings in rigged Mubarak-era
elections.
(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad in Alexandria,
Shaimaa Fayed in Damietta and Tom Perry, Patrick Werr, Peter Millership
and Edmund Blair in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter
Millership)
$INS01; Line LNY Insave:- TI line name (Map report)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians have voted in a parliamentary
election that could bring Islamists closer to power, though the army
generals who took over from President Hosni Mubarak have yet to step
aside.
The Muslim Brotherhood, expected to do well in the
marathon vote whose first stage drew millions to the polls, said the new
parliament should form a government, setting it at odds with the
military council which has only just named a new prime minister.
The
election for the lower house is due to be held over three phases,
concluding in early January. Early election results were expected to
trickle out on Wednesday.
State television broadcast live footage
of the vote count across Egypt, which has not seen an election this
free since army officers overthrew the monarchy in 1952.
Though
the Brotherhood went into the polls stronger than nascent secular
parties, analysts say it is hard to predict the outcome given that most
of the electorate are casting their ballots for the first time.
Election monitors reported logistical hiccups and campaign violations during the poll but no serious violence.
The
outcome of the election in one of the Middle East's most influential
powers will help shape the future of a region convulsed by uprisings
against decades of autocracy.
Though it did not start the
Egyptian uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a major
beneficiary of the revolt. The group is now eyeing a role in shaping the
country's future.
The Freedom and Justice Party, the
Brotherhood's political wing established earlier this year, said Egypt's
new parliament should form the government.
"A government that is
not based on a parliamentary majority cannot conduct its work in
practice," Mohamed Mursi told reporters during a tour of polling
stations in the working class district of Shubra in Cairo.
"Therefore
we see that it is natural that the parliamentary majority in the coming
parliament will be the one that forms the government," said Mursi,
whose group was outlawed but tolerated under Mubarak, adding:
"We see that it is better for it to be a coalition government built on a majority coalition in the parliament."
SCOPE FOR TENSION
It
was only last week that the military council appointed Kamal
al-Ganzouri, a 78-year-old veteran of the Mubarak era, to form a cabinet
to replace the government of Essam Sharaf, which resigned in the face
of protests against military rule.
A military council member said
at the weekend the new parliament would not have the authority to
dismiss Ganzouri's government or form a new one. Yet observers question
whether the council will be able to resist the will of a chamber elected
in a fair vote, especially if voting carries on smoothly.
A senior figure in the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood said its FJP had done well in the voting so far.
"The Brotherhood party hopes to win 30 percent of parliament," Mohamed El-Beltagy told Reuters.
The
leader of the ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist al-Nour Party, which
hopes to siphon votes from the Brotherhood, said organizational failings
meant his party had underperformed.
But he told Reuters the
party still expected to win up to half of Alexandria's 24 seats in
parliament and, nationwide, 70 to 75 of the assembly's 498 elected
seats.
In one of the military's first reactions to the election's
first phase, General Ismail Atman, a ruling army council member, was
quoted by Al-Shorouk newspaper as saying the poll showed the irrelevance
of protests demanding an end to military rule in Cairo's Tahrir Square
and elsewhere.
The general said turnout would exceed more than 70
percent, though the Brotherhood's Mursi said indications showed a lower
figure of 40 percent.
The success of the first phase has
deflected criticism faced by the military council, which has been under
pressure from street protesters over what they see as the generals'
attempts to maintain power and privilege in the post-Mubarak era.
Last
week was Egypt's most violent since Mubarak was ousted: 42 people were
killed in clashes triggered by the protests against the council.
Unidentified
youths hurled petrol bombs near the square late on Tuesday. A Reuters
witness heard gunshots and the state news agency MENA said two
protesters suffered eye wounds which may have been caused by shots from a
pellet gun.
An organizer of the protest said the trouble started when an unidentified group tried to enter the square.
Many
Egyptians were worried the elections would be bloody. But there has
been little sign of the thugs who were a feature of the rigged elections
of the Mubarak era.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
congratulated Egyptians on the first stage of the election and "the
generally calm and orderly manner in which voting took place," a
statement from his office said.
Les Campbell, of the
Washington-based National Democratic Institute, one of many groups
monitoring the poll, said it was "a fair guess" that turnout would
exceed 50 percent, far above the meager showings in rigged Mubarak-era
elections.
(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad in Alexandria,
Shaimaa Fayed in Damietta and Tom Perry, Patrick Werr, Peter Millership
and Edmund Blair in Cairo; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter
Millership)
$INS01; Line LNY Insave:- TI line name (Map report)