Eurasia Press & News
President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party has won a majority of seats in Egypt’s upper house of parliament in elections marred by violence.Candidates fielded by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful opposition group, failed to win any seats in the 264-seat Shura Council polls which was marked by accusations of irregularities and Brethren crackdown.
The ruling National Democratic Party seized most of the 88 contested seats in Monday’s election, Al-Gomhoria newspaper reported Wednesday.
The daily added that official numbers were not released, only that none of the seats went to the Brotherhood and a majority went to the NDP.
Party officials immediately hailed the results. “This is due to the confidence the people have showed in the party’s candidates,” said Safwat el-Sherif, the NDP’s Secretary the Muslim Brotherhood denounced the results as a setback for democracy.
One person was killed in a clash which erupted between supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party candidate and his independent rival in the Nile Delta town of Husseiniya, shortly after the opening of the polls.
The Shura Council, the parliament’s upper house, is composed of 264 members of which 176 members are directly elected and 88 are appointed by the president.