Attackers wielding machetes, knives and axes created mayhem at scattered polling places around Egypt on Sunday, killing one man and wounding dozens of others. The violence was seen as a government effort to create chaos to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from making further gains in the second round of three-stage parliamentary elections.
Voters at some polling places praised the government for its organization, with independent judges supervising transparent ballot boxes. But the violence erupted around polling places that were considered strongholds for the Muslim Brotherhood, which did surprisingly well in the first round of elections, particularly in poorer neighborhoods in this Mediterranean city.
The man killed was identified as the driver for one candidate. The driver was stabbed to death by one of the attackers -- many of whom, election observers said, appeared to be high on drugs or drunk and who were brought into the areas on trucks by the security services.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the Independent Committee on Election Monitoring confirmed reports of widespread violence in the nine regions where the second stage of the election is taking place to choose 144 candidates for the 454-seat parliament.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed but has been tolerated in recent years, announced that 400 of its followers had been rounded up in 24 hours, and the Alexandria office said 42 had been wounded in clashes at polling places.
The governing National Democratic Party has long controlled parliament, which has served as a rubber stamp for the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak for 24 years. But following the first presidential elections allowing a choice this year, the ruling party also seemed to be giving a freer hand to candidates in elections for the parliament.
These elections are considered particularly significant because this parliament and the next are expected to play a significant role in rewriting the constitutional rules that will determine how the successor to the 77-year-old president is chosen.
The Muslim Brotherhood, whose members run as independents, won 34 seats out of the 164 that were up for election in the first round, doubling the number of seats its members held in all of the last parliament, elected in 2000.
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