Three killed in election violence in Egypt

In the run-off of the third stage of parliamentary elections, two Muslim Brotherhood supporters where killed in Dumyat when police fired rubber bullets and used teargas, according to medical sources. Official sources confirms the two deaths, but stresses that the police where not involved. In the nearby village of al Khiyata a man was killed when police used live ammunition according to the Egyption Organization for Human Rights(EOHR). According to al Jazeera ,a fourth man died of wounds sustained when shot by security forces outside a polling station in al Sharqiyya. If confirmed , it brings the death toll of electoral violence to seven people. In Zagazig the police cordoned one of the voting stations and beat and showed women, who where among 25 women trying to break trough the police cordon at the polling station ,to get in to vote. At another polling station in Zagazig, supporters of the Ikhwan was met by thugs with machetes and knifes. In Badawi,close to Zagazig the police used rubber bullets to disperse stonethrowing youth. The Interior ministry spokesman ,Ibrahim Hammed claimed that everything was going normal, apart from ten polling stations where Muslim Brotherhood thugs was causing disturbances. According to official sources in Cairo 600 people have been injured , and 80 arrested.

Today is the third and final run-off in the parliamentary elections. 127 seats are supposedly contested and 35 MB candidates competes for seats. From the start of the elections on the 9 of November, at least 1200 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood has been arrested. Despite this, the success story of these elections are the MB, who has already increased their seats in Parliament fivefold ,from 17 to 76, something nobody expected, probably not even the MB itself. Issam al Eryan, perhaps their most charismatic and dynamic leader, newly released from prison, has stated that if the Brotherhood gets over 70 seats, they will try to legalize it. This of course is one of the taboos in Egyptian politics , and both the leadership in Cairo and Washington are firmly against it for now. The NDP has done almost as bad as the last time, and has once again reversed it´s threat of banning renegade NDP-independents, and instead embraced them in the big partyfamily yet again. The secular has as always(when it´s not boycotting the elections) done a less than satisfatory election, and it´s probably worse than ever.
Six seats will be contested at a later date, due to irregularities and violence in the second round.

Egypt election violence