Islamists claim victory in first phase of Egypt elections

The Freedom and Justice Party has claimed the lead in the first phase of Egypt's election Egypt's Islamists claimed on Wednesday they were headed for victory in phase one of the country's first post-revolution election. The Muslim Brotherhood, a group persecuted and banned during the 30-year rule of veteran president Hosni Mubarak who was overthrown in February, said their new Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) was ahead in preliminary results.
"From the start of the voting process until now (around 0930 GMT), preliminary results show the Freedom and Justice party list ahead," a statement from the group said, without giving figures.
In a surprise trend that would alarm secular liberals and the country's minority Christian community, the FJP also claimed that hardline Islamists who follow the strict Salafi brand of Islam were in second position.
The Brotherhood said earlier the parliament that emerges from Egypt’s landmark elections should form a government, setting the stage for possible confrontation between Islamists and the ruling generals who have only just named a new prime minister as the Tahrir sit-in protest against the military council entered its 12th day on Wednesday.
The FJP said Egypt’s new parliament should form the government.
“A government that is not based on a parliamentary majority cannot conduct its work in practice,” FJP head Mohammed Mursi told reporters during a tour of polling stations in the working-class district of Shubra in Cairo.
“Therefore we see that it is natural that the parliamentary majority in the coming parliament will be the one that forms the government,” said Mursi, adding:
“We see that it is better for it to be a coalition government built on a majority coalition in the parliament.”
It was only last week that the military council appointed Kamal Al-Ganzouri, a 78-year-old veteran of the Mubarak era, to form a cabinet to replace the government of Essam Sharaf, which resigned in the face of protests against military rule.
A military council member said at the weekend the new parliament would not have the authority to dismiss Ganzouri’s government or form a new one. Yet observers question whether the council will be able to resist the will of a chamber elected in a fair vote, especially if voting carries on smoothly.
On Monday and Tuesday, millions of Egyptians embraced their new democratic freedoms, filing into polling stations in the capital Cairo and second-city Alexandria for the first phase of multi-stage parliamentary elections.
The results to be published on Wednesday only cover those areas that voted -- a third of constituencies -- but they will show the trends likely to shape a country that has not had a free election in 60 years.
Election monitors reported logistical hiccups and some campaign violations but no serious violence to disrupt proceedings. Election posters and banners festooned towns and cities while judges officiated under the eye of troops, police and election monitors.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a group at pains to stress its religious tolerance during campaigning, earned respect and recognition among many Egyptians for its opposition to Mubarak and its charitable work.
The outcome of the election in one of the Middle East’s most influential powers will help shape the future of a region convulsed by uprisings against decades of autocracy.
Though it did not start the Egyptian uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a major beneficiary of the revolt. The group, outlawed by Mubarak and his predecessors, is now in sight of a role in shaping the country’s future.
Many of the new political parties which have emerged in the post-Mubarak era are unknown to voters and the secular pro-democracy movement that helped overthrow the dictator is divided and disorganised.
In Tunisia, the origin of the Arab Spring movement that has seen pro-demoracy uprising across the region, a moderate Islamist party was elected in the first free election.
The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper and the independent daily Al-Shorouk both gave the lead to the Freedom and Justice Party, citing preliminary figures.
Last week was Egypt’s most violent since Mubarak was ousted: 42 people were killed in clashes triggered by the protests against the military council, mostly in streets around Tahrir.
Egypt's health ministry spokesman Mohamed El-Sherbeeny said that 10 people are in a critical condition after clashes in Tahrir Square last night following the closure of the polls. He said 108 were injured in total.
Tuesday night’s violence in Tahrir erupted when youths who could not be identified had tried to enter the square, one of the protest organisers said.
In the ensuing trouble, petrol bombs were thrown in the direction of the protesters and guns were fired. Twenty-seven of the wounded were taken to hospital, the official MENA news agency reported.
Live television footage showed petrol bombs arching through the night sky in the direction of the square and exploding on the road by Cairo's landmark Egyptian Museum and not far from the protesters’ encampment.
A witness heard at least 10 shots as the trouble flared at one end of the square, where protesters have been urging the immediate departure of the army generals who replaced Mubarak in February.
In criticism of the military-run government, leading reformist politician Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter feed: “Thugs are now attacking the protesters in Tahrir. A regime that cannot protect its citizens is a regime that has failed in performing its basic function.”
Mohammed Al-Saeed, an organiser of the protest, told Egyptian state television the protesters had organised volunteer security groups “to protect people and families in the square” from the youths.
People parked cars on one of the main bridges spanning the Nile to watch as armed youths chased others in violent scenes beneath them.
It was unclear who threw the petrol bombs and who fired the shots and what motivated them, but state television said the clashes had initially involved street vendors.
In an earlier sign of tensions in the square, scuffles had flared between dozens of street vendors who have been selling goods to the protesters camped there and stalls were damaged.
The term thugs was often used to describe violent pro-Mubarak elements who disrupted elections in the rigged polls of the past and who used camels in the final days of the Mubarak era to try and intimidate protesters in Tahrir Square.
Many Egyptians were worried elections would be bloody. Instead, the vote won international praise.
The vote on Monday and Tuesday in Cairo and Alexandria and other areas was the first of three stages of an election for a new lower house of parliament. The rest of the country follows next month and in January.
Egypt’s stock market closed up 5.48 per cent on Tuesday as investors welcomed the stability after weeks of falls caused by the political upheaval and unrest.
The successful first stage of the election was a boost for army leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who insisted voting should go ahead despite the unrest last week.
After each round there will be a run-off vote, and then a further six rounds of voting for the upper house of parliament from January.
Both the schedule and the voting system are fiendishly complex, meaning a clear interpretation of Wednesday's results might take some time to emerge once figures are given late in the day.
Voters were asked to cast three ballots in the election - two for individual candidates and another for a party or coalition.
The results will be final for the individual candidates - who will go into a run-off vote next week unless someone wins a majority outright - and preliminary figures for the party lists.
Turnout for the vote was high, with long queues forming before polling stations opened on Monday morning. A member of the interim military leadership has forecast 70 percent of voters exercised their right.
The military rulers known as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) expressed their "happiness" on Tuesday, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent his congratulations for the "generally calm and orderly" conduct of the poll.
The backdrop to the vote had been ominous after a week of protests calling for the resignation of the SCAF leaders who stepped in at the end of Mubarak's rule. Forty-two people were killed and more than 3,000 injured.
Analysts warn that the country faces huge challenges ahead in its long, complicated and uncertain transition to democracy that is scheduled to finish only in June next year under the current timetable.
Once two houses of parliament are elected by March after six rounds of voting across the country, a new constitution must be drawn up and a president elected.
There are also concerns about whether the new army leaders are prepared to hand over their powers to a civilian government.
Egypt, with a fast-growing population of more than 80 million, is a former British protectorate ruled by military leaders for most of its history since independence in 1922.