Gains made by the Muslim Brotherhood inspired the sudden change in election security tactics, reports Mustafa El-Menshawy During the first stage of parliamentary elections, which kicked off on 9 November, security forces were "neutral". Although the police did nothing to stop the reportedly large-scale vote buying and ballot stuffing going on, voters were also allowed unfettered access to polling stations. The results were striking: 34 Muslim Brotherhood candidates won seats. The gains made by Islamist candidates seem to have inspired a change of attitude when the second round began on 20 November. It quickly became clear that security forces were now trying their best to slow down the outlawed yet tolerated group's progress. The fact that the group was quite popular in the nine governorates where the vote was taking place, however, made matters complicated. "Unlike the first stage, where no Muslim Brotherhood member was detained, police detained 862 of the group's members in the second stage," said Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futouh, a leading Brotherhood figure. The detainees included some of the group's most influential campaigners. Abul-Futouh and human rights activists also referred to several cases where police gave thugs a free hand to harass the group. Police also closed polling stations in areas they considered Brotherhood strongholds. Despite all these restrictions, Brotherhood candidates won 34 more seats, thus confirming the group's position as Egypt's most serious and organised opposition force. The third stage, which began on 1 December, turned even bloodier; hundreds of Brotherhood members were detained, and police shut down several polling stations, despite the crowds outside trying to vote. In many constituencies, soldiers -- backed by armoured personnel carriers -- cordoned off the streets leading to polling stations. In the Nile Delta governorates of Sharqiya and Daqahliya, riots erupted after people were blocked access to polling stations. In Baltim, near Kafr El-Sheikh, a would-be voter was shot dead and 60 others wounded during clashes with riot police trying to stop people from entering a polling station. Although human rights groups said the police killed fisherman Gomaa El-Zeftawy, Interior Ministry spokesman Ibrahim Hammad denied the claim. Ironically enough, Hammad had just issued a statement announcing that polling had "unfolded in a smooth and peaceful manner". He also said that no polling stations had been closed, and denied reports that police were preventing voters from casting their ballots. News agency photographs, however, showed that dozens of men and women in one Nile Delta village were so determined to vote that, when police blocked access to their polling station, they went to the back of the building and used ladders to try and get to the ballot box via the building's windows. Judges supervising the polls seem to have been caught in the crossfire. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights said it had recorded 76 cases of judges being attacked by either the police or hired thugs. In one incident, which allegedly took place in Kafr El-Sheikh, judge Ahmed Abdel-Khaleq accused Ibrahim El-Kurdy, a policeman, of ordering one of his assistants to beat Abdel-Khaleq with the butt of a gun. "When judges intervened to help voters get to the polls, police ordered thugs to wreck havoc on the voting process," said Cassation Court Deputy Chief Ahmed Mekki. Police have reportedly hired thugs to deter voters from casting their ballots, especially in areas where Brotherhood candidates were expected to win. In Damanhour, a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold, one of the thugs captured by voters confessed that he "was released from jail, along with other prisoners, on the eve of the elections, and given money to frighten voters away from polling stations". Thugs attacked voters in front of one of the city's poll stations for nearly half an hour while police officials looked on, eyewitnesses said. No police officials were available for comment. According to the Brotherhood's Abul-Futouh, the impact of the change in security tactics was enormous. During the third round, not one of the group's 49 candidates won, "due to security interferences". He noted, however, that the violations were undermined by both the public's insistence on voting, and the balanced attitudes of the judges monitoring the elections. Faced with intense judicial criticism after the second round, the interior minister pledged to make sure subsequent voting would be free and fair. The violations that then took place in the third stage prompted the Judges' Club to lobby for the interior minister's dismissal. Much to the ministry's chagrin, many of the violations were broadcast by dozens of media outlets. "From the footage screened by Arab and international satellite channels, it is hard for me to believe that police did their job well, or acted seriously," said Fouad Allam, a former state security chief. Allam asked that the satellite TV footage be used during investigations into the violations. Al-Jazeera, BBC and countless news agencies all ran images of sword and machete- bearing thugs threatening voters, as well as scenes of voters covered in blood. The images discredited official assurances that "acts of violence were limited", or that the Muslim Brotherhood was to blame. Police have also come under fire for targeting journalists covering the polls. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported a dozen cases involving journalists being attacked, detained and prevented from performing their duties. The New York-based group accused the ruling National Democratic Party and security forces of ordering supporters to beat and jostle reporters. "It is outrageous that Egyptian authorities tolerate the harassment and intimidation of journalists covering an election," the group said in a 2 December press release. More incidents occurred, the group said, after the Muslim Brotherhood gained ground. One female journalist, Asmaa Ali of opposition newspaper Al-Karama, even received rape threats and was beaten unconscious by police officers in Shubra El-Kheima on 26 November, CPJ said. Human rights groups were especially angered by the violations. According to a press release signed by 16 human rights organisations, police detained Osama Labib and Mohamed Abdel-Gelil while they were monitoring elections in Sharqiya on 1 December. "The two observers, who had official permits from the higher electoral committee, have been held without charges since then." Negad El-Borai, a human rights activist who monitors elections, blamed police violations -- which he described as more severe this year -- for the bloody acts of violence that marred the polls. In earlier elections, he said, candidates' supporters were the primary culprits. "Suffice it to say, this year's dynamic makes the elections null and void, and dashes all hopes for peaceful reforms." Additional reporting by Mohamed El-Sayed
