Election day in Alexandria passed quietly, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky In the 2005 election Alexandria emerged as a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold, something the NDP was determined to reverse on Sunday. Initial results from the polls suggest they have succeeded in that goal. Of the city's 24 seats the NDP won 15 in the first round, and is expected to win eight seats in the 5 December run-off. Two of the NDP's candidates were high-profile ministers -- Moufid Shehab, minister of state for legal and parliamentary affairs, and Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub, minister of local development. Both coasted to easy victories. On Sunday all eyes were turned to Alexandria, expected to be the scene of serious clashes between the NDP and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. In the event, polling day passed quietly. The main battle, between El-Mahgoub and sitting Muslim Brotherhood MP Sobhi Saleh, was in the constituency of Al-Raml. "Al-Raml has had a Muslim Brother in parliament since 1990," says political analyst Essam Raafat. Putting up someone like El-Mahgoub was a very smart move by the NDP, he adds, given that he was a popular governor of the city between 1997 and 2007, when he oversaw the regeneration of many poor neighbourhoods. Two weeks before polling day Al-Raml witnessed violent clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and security forces during a rally held by the former. The police arrested 1,206 members of the outlawed group, many of whom have now been refereed for prosecution. In his campaign El-Mahgoub focussed on the poorest areas of the constituency, largely ignored by Saleh during his 10 years as an MP. "I am standing for parliament for the sake of the people of Alexandria, for a better future for young people. My record is an open book. Voters are aware of what I have already done," El-Mahgoub told Al-Ahram Weekly. The district of Minya Al-Bassal, where the NDP candidate Abdel-Halim Allam defeated Muslim Brotherhood member Hamdi Hassan, was also expected to be fiercely contested. Observers recorded few incidents of fraud as the seat went to Allam who built his campaign around winning the support of the main families in the area. The Muslim Brotherhood is now pinning its hopes on a single seat that will be decided in next week's second round, Karmouz, the smallest constituency in Alexandria. Other constituencies were a piece of cake for the NDP or NDP members running as independents, especially after the Higher Election Commission (HEC) refused to allow seven Brotherhood MPs to run. All seven obtained court rulings in their favour which the HEC refused to implement. Hassan Ibrahim, the deputy head of the Brotherhood bloc in the outgoing parliament, is among the seven.
