Police clashed with voters, killing one, and barred many from entering polling stations in opposition strongholds on Thursday, forcing some to clamber up ladders to sneak in and cast ballots in the final round of Egypt's troubled parliament elections.
The vote -- considered a key test of President Hosni Mubarak's openness to reform -- has turned into a battle between the government and its top rival, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood, Egypt's main Islamic group, has racked up seats in the election's previous two stages last month, increasing its presence in parliament five-fold so far -- and prompting a sharp government crackdown and increased violence at the polls.
PHOTO: AP
In the town of Kafr el-Sheik, north of Cairo, voters shoved lines of riot police blocking them from the polls. Police tried to disperse the crowd with nightsticks and tear gas, bringing volleys of stones from the voters.
Police opened fire, killing one man and wounding 60 people, said Mohammed el-Ashqar, a campaign worker for a leftist Nasserite opposition candidate. El-Ashqar said police fired live ammunition, though the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said rubber bullets were fired.
It was the second death in violence at the polls since voting began in early November. The Interior Ministry confirmed Thursday's death, saying the victim was a government supporter.
It blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for clashes in Kafr el-Sheik and elsewhere, saying its supporters attacked voters and judges monitoring the polls.
Voting proceeded normally on Thursday without violence or intimidation in some areas, such as Zagazig, where a top Brotherhood leader was the favorite to win.
But in numerous towns where government candidates faced stiff competition from Brotherhood or opposition figures, voters were met at the polls by lines of police blocking the entrances -- often letting in only those who said they would cast ballots for the ruling National Democratic Party.
Policemen beat up at least four monitor-judges, said Hesham el-Bastawisy, a member of a movement of pro-reform judges.
Men with clubs and knives attacked voters lined up at a polling station in Mansoura, a center for the Brotherhood.
"They are thugs rented by the NDP," said 18-year-old Amr Hammed Mansour, wrapping his bloodied head with a white bandage after the fighting.
"President Mubarak deceived me. I believed him when he talked about democracy but look at what is going on," said Hamdi Sayyed, one of hundreds of people who tried to vote but were barred by ranks of police in Sandoub, a village outside Mansoura.
In the nearby town of Bussat, dozens of men and women clambered up ladders over the side wall of a polling station and slipped in through bathroom windows -- until police who had been blocking the entrance discovered them and removed the ladders.
Under pressure from Washington, Mubarak's government has promised democratic reform in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood -- which is banned but runs candidates as independents -- was given considerable leeway to campaign in the early stages.
But violence stepped up in the second round, held Nov. 9 and 15, after the Brotherhood's strong showing in the first.
Despite the turmoil, the Brotherhood has won 76 seats, up from 15 in the outgoing assembly. The NDP has won 201 seats, and other independent or opposition candidates have taken 25.
The last 136 of parliament's 454 seats are being contested in the final round, held in six provinces. Run-off polls will be held on Wednesday in districts where no candidate gets at least 50 percent of the vote.
Two Brotherhood candidates won seats in Mansoura, but official results were still pending, according to Brotherhood member. and editor of the Islamist movement's Web site, Abdel Gelil el-Sharnoubi.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
RSS