Al-Ahram Weekly covers some of the heated run-offs that took place in the final round of parliamentary elections on Wednesday Long way from democracy Mohamed El-Sayed sees security forces intervene more aggressively to stop voters from casting ballots "You're a Muslim Brotherhood supporter, right?" asked the machete-wielding thug. "None of your business!" 20-year-old Iman Fathi boldly answered. "If you don't go away, I will hit you with this machete," he threatened. "I am not afraid of you. If you want to hit me, go on," she replied. "Go away!" he angrily said, while pushing and swearing at her. This face-off took place last Thursday at Zagazig's El-Nasseriya School, 150 kilometres northeast of Cairo, before the young woman slapped the thug across the face and hurried to hide in one of the classrooms. "You are not men. You are cowards. You are supposed to protect us!" Fathi shouted. But to the young lady's disappointment, the security forces told her: "Go away, or we will send you to prison!" Fathi remained determined, waiting in front of the school until the very last moment in the hope that security forces would reopen the polling stations. "It really is a shame. They are robbing us of our most basic rights," she said, trying to hold back her tears. "It's crystal clear that those thugs were hired by the government to frighten us away from polling stations so as not to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood candidate." As was the case in previous rounds, "protecting the electorate and judges" was the usual pretext cited by security forces for closing off polling stations in many of the governorate's 14 constituencies. On Wednesday, it was more of the same. In fact, at many polling stations, security forces intervention took an even more aggressive turn. All polling stations where opposition and Muslim Brotherhood candidates were competing against their NDP counterparts were cordoned off by central security, allowing only NDP supporters access into the stations to cast their votes. In the violence that ensued, one man was killed and 35 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were arrested. In addition, scores of people were rushed to hospitals in different areas of the governorate. "We had orders from the highest security official in the governorate to close the polling stations," an officer told Al-Ahram Weekly. Among those badly injured was Associated Press photographer Amr Nabil, who was beaten up by thugs while taking pictures of riot police beating voters. In El-Tallein constituency, Mahmoud Abaza, the charismatic vice-president of the Wafd Party, was competing against the NDP's Yehya Azmi, brother of Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi. Here, voters were denied access to polling stations from 8am onwards. Abaza arrived at the scene at 11am and quarreled with security forces, until they finally allowed thousands of his supporters in. In Tal Heweil and Bani Shebl, security forces used tear gas to disperse disenfranchised voters. As many as 20 people, including children, were injured and rushed to hospital. "Security forces are occupying the entire village," said a woman who broke into tears. "We are being humiliated and assaulted because we just wanted to have our say and choose the Muslim Brotherhood candidate. I beg government officials to stop talking about democracy. In a democracy, a citizen is not attacked when he goes to cast his vote. How can they allow security forces to humiliate us and our children in this cruel way?" In Abu Kebir, buses with government license plates brought in hundreds of Postal Authority employees from other governorates to vote for authority head and NDP candidate Ali Muselhi, who was running against Brotherhood candidate El-Sayed Abdel-Hamid, the constituency's outgoing MP. Boxes stuffed with ballots with Muselhi's name already ticked off were allegedly also ready to be used as replacements for the legitimate ballot boxes. As the sun began to set, the smell of tear gas filled the air in the city of Zagazig. Voters were caught between thugs who attacked them and police forces that barred them from voting. The result was an electorate that seemed to have lost faith in the entire election process. "This wouldn't even happen in a Third World country," said a 50- year-old housewife. "I don't know why they hold elections in the first place, if they prevent people from having their say. We still have a long way to go." She said the only way fair elections could take place would be for the "government to close the gap separating us from it, by building the public's confidence, and honestly seeking reform." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Souvenir grenades Salonaz Sami witnesses run-off elections turn just as violent as the original contests "The once quiet and peaceful city of Kafr El-Sheikh is not the same anymore," said shop owner Taha Abdallah. "When I left my shop today to go cast my vote, I had no idea that I was actually going to a battlefield. It looked the same as the ones we see on TV in occupied Palestine." Indeed, armed trucks were parked on every corner of the El-Gezira El-Khadraa village's alleyways; hundreds of anti-riot police were deployed at the entrance and exit of every street leading to the only polling station in town. Tear gas was used extensively to disperse the crowds that had come to vote. The voters -- most of whom work in the fishing industry -- responded to these attacks with rocks and stones. "It's been like this since 8am," said one. "Security forces have been using tear gas and rubber bullets all day. I was shot in the shoulder and my older brother in the leg, just because we wanted to enter the station to cast our votes." Another resident, Mohamed Awadein, wandered around proudly showing off the two tear gas grenades that he picked up from what he called "the battle scene". Voters were also forbidden from entering any of the polling stations in the El-Fouah and Motobs constituencies. In Nagea Sallam, poll monitors and candidates' representatives were not allowed into the station and the police confiscated their identity cards. Voters fared little better. Housewife Amina Mustafa explained that she had been waiting for over three hours. According to Mona Ibrahim, the police were "sexually harassing us, so that we would leave. It is extremely humiliating". In Bandar, Kafr El-Sheikh, El-Hamool and Desouk, run-offs were cancelled altogether by order of the Higher Administrative Court. In Baltim, where local fisherman Gomaa El-Zeftawy was shot dead by riot police using live bullets to disperse a crowd of would- be voters during the original elections on 1 December, there were still complications despite a relative improvement in voter participation. A voter named Aziz El-Swefi said riot police had prevented him from entering the polling station to cast his vote. "They told me to come back later because it was busy inside the station, although I saw with my own eyes that the station was totally empty," he said. Some residents interpreted the police's attitude as a sign that the government was trying to make sure that opposition candidate Hamdeen Sabahi lost. An elderly woman named Alia said the officer in charge of securing the Gamal Abdel-Nasser polling station had asked her who she was going to vote for. When she said Sabahi, the officer ordered one of his subordinates to beat her up. "But," she said, with tears in her eyes, "I am not going anywhere until I cast my vote for him." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Waiting for nothing Hicham Safieddine watches as scores of voters were injured, and hundreds prevented from voting In Daqahliya, although run-offs were slated in 16 districts, hundreds of security forces cordoned off polling stations through much of the day, preventing opposition voters from entering and casting their ballots. In Matariya, violent clashes between residents and security forces took place. In several neighbourhoods, police officials, including some who had climbed onto the roofs of polling stations, attacked protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas, bricks and sticks. By noon, at least four people had been seriously injured and taken to a public hospital, where nurses tried to cope with the casualties. One police officer was seriously injured. Most voters said they were prevented from entering the stations because they supported Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Farag. "Where is justice?" asked one angry protestor. "They don't want us to choose." Protesters burnt tyres, and threw Molotov cocktails and bricks back at the police. Many of the protesters -- smothered by tear gas -- fled the streets when it became too much to bear. As voters gathered outside Kirdi High School in Daqahliya's Minyit El-Nasr district, a judge told Al-Ahram Weekly that security forces refused to listen to his pleas to let people in to vote. Likewise, in front of the Sharq El-Mansoura High School polling station, teacher Hussein Ali Hassan said he had "been waiting here for over two hours, but they won't let us in." Along with a handful of other people, Hassan was eventually turned away. "They had my name wrong, and all this waiting was for nothing," a frustrated Hassan told the Weekly. At a polling station on Faculty of Arts Street, thugs wielding swords and sticks attacked the crowds, reportedly injuring several people. Other violent incidents took place in Talkha, where disenfranchised voters set tyres on fire and closed down the main road connecting Mansoura to Damietta. Fire crews were called in and the road was then reopened to traffic. Some voters refused to give up, climbing ladders to circumvent the tight police barriers at the stations' entrances, and sneaking into polling stations via back windows. In Sandoob, a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold, voters chanted anti- government slogans, held noon prayers on the street next to the security forces who were barring their access to the polling station, and demanded that the cordon be dismantled.
