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28-11-2005, 17:41
November 27, 2005
BOLQINA, Egypt -- Police blocked voters from casting ballots yesterday in districts where parliamentary candidates from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood were expected to win, witnesses said.
The police offensive, accompanied by clashes between supporters of Islamist and secular parties, occurred amid efforts by the Brotherhood movement to bolster its already impressive tally of 47 out of 186 seats decided so far.
...
Senior Brotherhood member Ali Abdel Fattah said police arrested 680 movement members and supporters yesterday. Earlier, a police official said 140 Brotherhood members were arrested.
At least five persons were wounded in yesterday's violence, led by armed thugs roaming streets on foot or in vehicles. There were also reports of police intimidation of voters. Security forces confiscated the identity papers of an Associated Press reporter covering the polls in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.
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Election monitors complained that security forces blocked some of the 10 million eligible voters from casting ballots. Judicial official Hesham el-Bastawy said judges were considering canceling the vote in some areas as a result of police cordons at polls.
"When some of the judges protested and demanded that the centers be open to the voters, they were insulted and humiliated by the police," Mr. el-Bastawy told Al Jazeera TV. "This is a grave development."
The Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession said one of its monitors was arrested and police let only NDP supporters vote in the eastern city of Suez.
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In Bolqina, voters claimed NDP-allied thugs attacked them. Brotherhood supporter Mokhtar Mohammed said men fired guns into the air and beat voters, including veiled women, with sticks before smashing several computers at a polling station.
In Hayatem village, voters said about 30 thugs wielding swords, wooden sticks and guns attacked a Brotherhood polling center. In Attab, voter Essam Mohammed said three security trucks descended on the village, followed by a truck packed with thugs who attacked him and other voters with knives.
In the coastal city of Alexandria, the Brotherhood claimed candidates and supporters were harassed and attacked and some of its representatives barred from entering polls.
Interior Ministry spokesman Ibrahim Hammad denied that polls were closed or that police were blocking voters. He said elections were "unfolding in an orderly manner."
BOLQINA, Egypt -- Police blocked voters from casting ballots yesterday in districts where parliamentary candidates from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood were expected to win, witnesses said.
The police offensive, accompanied by clashes between supporters of Islamist and secular parties, occurred amid efforts by the Brotherhood movement to bolster its already impressive tally of 47 out of 186 seats decided so far.
...
Senior Brotherhood member Ali Abdel Fattah said police arrested 680 movement members and supporters yesterday. Earlier, a police official said 140 Brotherhood members were arrested.
At least five persons were wounded in yesterday's violence, led by armed thugs roaming streets on foot or in vehicles. There were also reports of police intimidation of voters. Security forces confiscated the identity papers of an Associated Press reporter covering the polls in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.
...
Election monitors complained that security forces blocked some of the 10 million eligible voters from casting ballots. Judicial official Hesham el-Bastawy said judges were considering canceling the vote in some areas as a result of police cordons at polls.
"When some of the judges protested and demanded that the centers be open to the voters, they were insulted and humiliated by the police," Mr. el-Bastawy told Al Jazeera TV. "This is a grave development."
The Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession said one of its monitors was arrested and police let only NDP supporters vote in the eastern city of Suez.
...
In Bolqina, voters claimed NDP-allied thugs attacked them. Brotherhood supporter Mokhtar Mohammed said men fired guns into the air and beat voters, including veiled women, with sticks before smashing several computers at a polling station.
In Hayatem village, voters said about 30 thugs wielding swords, wooden sticks and guns attacked a Brotherhood polling center. In Attab, voter Essam Mohammed said three security trucks descended on the village, followed by a truck packed with thugs who attacked him and other voters with knives.
In the coastal city of Alexandria, the Brotherhood claimed candidates and supporters were harassed and attacked and some of its representatives barred from entering polls.
Interior Ministry spokesman Ibrahim Hammad denied that polls were closed or that police were blocking voters. He said elections were "unfolding in an orderly manner."