Megaphones, money and ambivalent policemen were just some of the things seen by Al-Ahram Weekly reporters monitoring the parliamentary election run-offs As runoffs were being contested on Tuesday for 133 parliamentary seats, voting in polling stations across the country was marred by violence, bribery, voter intimidation and confusion. While the morning was for the most part calm, it was later in the day that election fever started to show. With voter turnout for the run-offs hovering at around 20 per cent (compared to around 24 per cent for the initial 9 November contest), it was only inside and near polling stations that there was tension. By evening, security forces had been deployed in several districts, warding off potential voters and thugs alike. Street violence was widely reported to have broken out between supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and voters who planned to choose opposition candidates. The violence escalated at certain polling stations, including the one in Ramlet Bulaq in Cairo, to the extent that security forces blocked off entire streets. "We had to put a stop to this," one police officer told Al-Ahram Weekly. "People were going mad." The judge in charge of the polling station closed it two hours early, while security forces surrounded the area and tried to disperse the crowds. The problem in many areas was that "we are not being allowed to vote," said Fatma, a disappointed voter in Ramlet Bulaq. "Just before going in, an NDP supporter will come up to you, and ask you who you're going to vote for. If he finds out you're going to choose an opposition candidate, he'll physically stop you from entering. They're even beating the women so that we cannot place our vote and challenge the NDP." Scenes of violence were also rife in the Governorate of Beni Sweif, where 15 people were wounded following scuffles between supporters of the NDP candidate and his rival from the Muslim Brotherhood. In the working class constituency of Old Cairo, a woman was seriously injured during a row between armed supporters of rival candidates. There were also several reported incidents of vote buying. In Abdeen, a number of voters approached by the Weekly said they had witnessed supporters of the NDP candidate distributing sums of money -- ranging from LE20 to LE200 -- to voters in front of the polling station they went to. When one voter reproached the group, one of the NDP supporters pulled a stack of money from his pocket and bluntly said: "Yes I am bribing voters, and if you want to take a picture of me, go ahead!" Other voters in Abdeen countered such claims, however. "Unlike on 9 November, I haven't seen any bribery," said Ibrahim Mohamed, a supporter of Ragab Hilal Hemeida, a Ghad Party dissident candidate. The extensive presence of candidates' supporters near polling stations throughout the day was also a key feature of the Tuesday run-offs. Streets close to the Nasr City police station -- which housed one of area's main polling stations -- were clogged by the presence of a huge number of supporters of the NDP's Mustafa El-Sallab, who was battling it out with Muslim Brotherhood candidate Makarem El-Deery. Dressed in green, holding El-Sallab's picture and dancing to music, the supporters waved at passers-by and urged them to stop and vote. They also handed out posters and flyers promoting the prominent businessman. Buses parked on the adjacent road unloaded workers from El-Sallab's factories, who hastily voted for their boss. Inside the polling station, several veiled women told the Weekly that they were voting for El-Deery because she is "close to us, understands us, and will make a change". In Bulaq Abul-Ela, where proceedings were relatively smooth, there was also an overwhelming show of support for NDP candidate Badr El-Qadi in an area where his competitor, former NDP member and current independent candidate Mohamed El-Masoud is very popular. "You see," said El-Qadi supporter Karam, "we love President Hosni Mubarak. That's why you see so many people flocking to vote for the NDP candidate." At polling stations in Helwan, hundreds of weapons factory workers flocked to polling stations to cast their vote for Military Production Minister Sayed Mashaal, who was running against independent Ismail Nasreddin. These ministry employees said they were voting to express their gratitude to the minister for the services he has provided to their district and their families. "He sent me on a training trip for two weeks, and he has looked after us when it comes to education, health and many other needs," said a middle-aged man named Alaa. Outside one of the district's polling stations, pro-Mashaal campaigners announced via megaphone that workers and their families could get 50 per cent discounts at the factory's health centre. Voters were also promised a day off on Wednesday, as well as a raise, if Mashaal emerged victorious. In central Cairo's Qasr El-Nil constituency, polling stations seemed practically deserted, despite the dozens of campaigners for both independent candidate Hisham Mustafa Khalil and NDP candidate Hossam Badrawi who worked hard to promote their respective candidates throughout the day. In front of the Faculty of Fine Art in Zamalek -- which housed four polling stations -- a Nubian band in white galabiyas were playing drums and singing out slogans like, "Whoa... whoa.... whoa....Hisham is in parliament..." Badrawi's campaigners appeared helpless in the face of the loud band. Despite clear and frequent breaches of electoral procedures at many polling stations, judges could not intervene. Asked about the bribes given to voters, one judge supervising a polling station in Abdeen said that judges' "jurisdiction covers only the polling room, and the corridors leading to it". Another said he "saw the man who was bribing people on the street from the window, but what can I do to him? This is the police's responsibility. I cannot leave the ballot box and go to the street. The fault lies with those who accepted the bribes, not us." Police, meanwhile, did not for the most part intervene to put an end to such irregularities. In another Abdeen polling station, Muslim Brotherhood supporter Hatem Ahmed said he "took a photo on my mobile phone of a NDP supporter giving money to poor residents and civil servants as they entered the polling station. I showed it to the policeman, but he told me that it did not amount to solid proof." According to Ahmed, a policeman even "prevented me from using my laptop to prepare voters' lists without providing any reasons for the ban". For its part, the Muslim Brotherhood had equipped cars with megaphones to tour the streets of Abdeen admonishing people not to accept bribes: "Be warned! He who buys your vote today will sell it tomorrow." Despite the fact that voter turnout was so low, many voters complained that their names were missing from voters' lists. In Tebeen, judges at a polling station said the election process had gone smoothly but that the most common problem they faced was a recurrence in discrepancies between the spelling of names of registered voters on their IDs, and their names on the electoral lists. Those with such discrepancies, the judges said, were turned away. Compiled by Serene Assir; reported by Reem Nafie (Nasr City), Magda El-Ghitany (Qasr El-Nil); Mohamed El-Sayed (Abdeen),
