Police fire on Egyptian voters

Thursday, December 1, 2005; Posted: 11:53 a.m. EST (16:53 GMT)

Egyptian voters throw stones at police in front of a polling station 160 km (99 miles) north of Cairo, Egypt.

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SANDOUB, Egypt (AP) -- Riot police clashed with would-be voters, killing one person, and closed off polling stations in several Muslim Brotherhood and opposition strongholds Thursday, as Egypt entered the final round of its troubled legislative elections.

Police fired into a crowd in the Balteem district of Kafr el-Sheik, killing Gomaa el-Zeftawi, a fisherman, and wounding 60 other people, said Mohammed el-Ashqar, a campaign worker for a Nasserite opposition candidate.

Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Ibrahim Hamad confirmed the killing of el-Zeftawi, but did not give a figure for the wounded. Minutes earlier Hamad had issued a ministry statement saying that polling had "unfolded in a smooth and peaceful manner."

In one Nile Delta village, men and women were so determined to vote that when police blocked the front of the polling station, they went round to the back and used ladders to climb over the wall.

Security forces beat up least four judges posted to monitor voting, and others judges were forced to close their stations because of clashes outside, said Hesham el-Bastawisy, a member of a movement of pro-reform judges.

Lines of police officers cordoned off both polling stations in the Nile Delta village of Sandoub, preventing anybody from casting their vote.

"President (Hosni) 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 would-be voters in Sandoub.

Under U.S. pressure to bring democratic reform, Mubarak's government has given its top rival, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic movement, considerable leeway to campaign in the early stages of the three-part elections.

But police interference has intensified in the later rounds, after the Brotherhood scored unexpectedly large gains, increasing its current representation in parliament more than five-fold.

In some towns -- even ones where Brotherhood candidates were favored -- voting proceeded normally Thursday, without police intervening or violence by candidates' supporters. But in several visited by Associated Press reporters, voters were barred.

The Interior Ministry accused the Brotherhood of inciting violence and attacking judges in polling stations. It said beefed-up security measures were taken to prevent Brotherhood supporters from "terrorizing" voters for other candidates.

Hundreds of people lined up in front of a school used as a polling station in Sandoub, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Cairo -- the hometown of Brotherhood candidate Saber Zakher -- but they were prevented from approaching by lines of riot police, armed with sticks, rifles and tear-gas launchers.

"Where is democracy and freedom? We want to vote but they prevented us," Ibtassam el-Shazli, a Sandoub resident dressed head to toe in a black veil. She said she had intended to vote for the Brotherhood. "We want someone who feels our pain. We are fed up with disease, unemployment and poverty."

In the nearby town of Bussat, the smell of tear gas hung in the air as angry would-be voters shouted at police blocking the station. Behind the polling station, men and women clambered up ladders over the wall and slipped in through a bathroom window.

An independent candidate not connected to the Brotherhood, Faisal Ibrahim Hassanein, is running against a candidate from the ruling National Democratic Party in the Bussat area.

Hundreds of security forces cordoned off schools in the Sinai town of el-Arish, preventing most voters from entering. Emad el-Bolok, a 35-year-old merchant, said police let him in to vote after he told them he was an NDP supporter.

When police asked who he would vote for, "I said 'The NDP candidate, of course,"' el-Bolok said. "Inside the polling station, the NDP representative told me which name I should choose, but I voted for Abdel Rahman el-Shorbagi (the Brotherhood candidate)."

More than 10 million Egyptians were eligible to vote in Thursday's third and final round, where the last 136 of parliament's 454 seats were being contested. Run-off polls will be held on Wednesday in districts where no candidate gets at least 50 percent of the vote.

In the two earlier rounds of polling in November, Brotherhood candidates 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. Results in six seats were thrown out, and 10 seats are appointed by Mubarak.

The Brotherhood, which has campaigned under the slogan "Islam is the solution," has been banned since 1954, but it has long been somewhat tolerated. Its candidates run as independents, though their allegiance to the Brotherhood is known to voters.

The first-round vote and run-off passed with little violence, but after the Brotherhood's strong showing, the government cracked down in the second round and its run-off, with police and supporters blocking or assaulting Brotherhood supporters from some polling stations. At least one person has been killed in polling violence.

More than 500 Brotherhood supporters were arrested earlier this week, the police have said. About 1,300 Brotherhood loyalists are believed to have been arrested since polling began on Nov. 9. Many have been released, but hundreds are still in custody.

On Thursday, voting was light but unhindered in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig. Voters walked into adjacent schools turned into polling stations -- one for men, one for women -- in the city's Nahal district, where the outspoken Muslim Brotherhood legislator Mohammed Morsi is standing for re-election.

Morsi, the leader of the Brotherhood-backed candidates in the outgoing parliament, has been a thorn in the government's side for the past five years. But the NDP appeared not to have mounted a large effort to mobilize voters, as it did in Cairo constituencies where significant Brotherhood candidates stood in earlier rounds.