Violence, accusations marr Egypt poll

Violence and charges of irregularities marred voting in Egypt's election on Sunday, with the ruling party certain to boost its domination of parliament at the expense of the harried Islamist opposition.

Violence was reported at several polling stations, with witnesses saying police fired tear gas at voters in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo, and in Qena, southern Egypt.

Islamists report discrimination

Police said several policemen and Muslim Brotherhood supporters were wounded in the Nile Delta city of Samanud in a clash that started when Islamists threw rocks at police guarding a polling station.

The Brotherhood said its candidates' representatives were ejected from polling stations and attacked by police when they protested.

At least three people were wounded in the southern governorate of Sohag when a ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate's supporters traded fire with rivals.

Police said a supporter of the NDP was in critical condition after unidentified gunmen shot him near a polling station in north Sinai.

Police also said they used tear gas to disperse clashes between supporters of rival candidates outside polling stations in Qena, about 475 kilometres (300 miles) south of Cairo.

The violence came despite increased security, with riot police deployed in some areas after activists clashed with police on Friday after a campaign marked by violence and arrests of more than 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

Candidate's son killed

An independent candidate's son was killed in Cairo's Matariya district and one person was wounded by gunfire in the Delta's Mansura governorate as supporters of rival candidates skirmished.

Relatives of Omar Sayyed Sayyed, 24, the candidate's son, said he was stabbed on Saturday night while putting up posters of his father. Police said he was killed in a dispute over a woman.

Polling stations closed at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) after the first round of voting, and initial results are expected early on Monday.

Egyptian monitors said irregularities were rife.

"From the first moments of the election, there have been a raft of violations, including the use of force, that have threatened the voting process," the Egyptian Coalition for Monitoring Elections said.

Accusations of ballot stuffing

It also said its field workers had gathered evidence of ballot stuffing in at least one district.

After a slow start to voting, interest picked up later on Sunday, with hundreds of people filling the courtyards of two schools converted into polling stations in Cairo's Matariya district.

A truck stacked with loudspeakers and covered with NDP posters blared techno music across the street.

In Suez, witnesses said hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and other opposition candidates demonstrated outside police headquarters because they were not allowed into polling stations.

Initial indications showed a low turnout in the country of 80 million people, where polls are traditionally eyed with suspicion and past elections have been marked by violence.

The NDP is widely expected to win a solid majority of the 508 elected seats and to make further gains when President Hosni Mubarak fills the 10 remaining seats with his appointees.

Much attention is focused on the Muslim Brotherhood, the only serious organised opposition, which is predicted to win far fewer seats than the fifth of parliament it secured in the last election in 2005.

The Brotherhood was fielding 130 candidates, compared with about 800 for the NDP, after the election committee disqualified more than a dozen of them. It registers its candidates as independents to bypass a ban on religious parties.

During the day voting also picked up in Alexandria, a Brotherhood stronghold.

But of the country's 41 million eligible voters, those who cast their ballots on Sunday remained a minority.

"I don't have time to vote," said Mohammed Hilal, who works in a shop in the Mediterranean city selling perfumes and wallets. "I have better things to do."

Foreign rights groups say the election has been compromised by the arrests of opposition activists and restrictions on their candidates, and that voting in Egypt, which consistently returns NDP-dominated parliaments, is routinely spoiled by fraud.

But the government has pledged to hold a fair vote.