New Egypt election results show Islamists leading

CAIRO - The Associated Press

Abdel Moez Ibrahim (C), head of Egypt's High Judicial Committee for Elections, gives a news conference to announce the outcome of the elections in Cairo December 2, 2011. REUTERS Photo

Islamist parties captured more than 60 percent of the vote in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, according to partial results released Sunday.

The Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, garnered 36.6 percent of the 9,734,413 valid ballots cast for party lists. The Nour Party, a more hardline Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent of the vote, according to figures provided by the High Election Commission.

The partial results only give an indication of how the new parliament will look like, as two more rounds of voting in 18 of Egypt's 27 provinces are yet be held in the multi-stage voting that will run through January.

The elections, which began Nov. 28, are the first since protests that forced authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak to step down on Feb. 11 after three decades in power and hand over control to a military council. Turnout of around 60 percent was the highest in the country's modern history as few participated in the heavily rigged votes under Mubarak.

The early results indicate Islamist parties are set to control the majority of the parliament.

The new parliament, in theory, is tasked with selecting a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has suggested that it will choose 80 of those members. The ruling generals have also indicated that the parliament will have no say in naming a new government.

The ballots are also a confusing mix of individual races and party lists, and the Sunday results only reflect the party list performance for less than a third of the 498-seat parliament.

The liberal Egyptian Bloc came in behind the two Islamist lists with 13.4 percent of the votes. Another liberal list, the Wafd Party, received 7.1 percent, while the moderate Islamist Wasat or Centrist Party took 4.3 percent.

It is not yet clear whether the Islamist parties will form one coalition inside the parliament, or the Brotherhood will seek to ally with the liberal forces against the more radical Nour Party.
The final shape of the parliament will not be announced before January.

The next step in the complex process, a round of runoffs between individual candidates competing in the first round, is set to begin Monday.

Mubarak alternately suppressed and tolerated the Muslim Brotherhood throughout his 30-year rule. It was technically banned and suffered periodic crackdowns, but managed to field some candidates in parliamentary elections as independents and establish a vast network of activists and charities offering free food and medical services in impoverished neighborhoods and villages.

The ultraconservative Salafi movement, which dominates the Nour Party, are newcomers to the political scene. They had previously frowned upon involvement in politics and shunned elections.