As they seek to consolidate their lead in the second round of parliamentary elections, Islamist parties face some uphill competition, reports Gamal Essam El-Din The second stage of People's Assembly elections began yesterday. Polling in the nine governorates of Giza, Beni Sweif, Sohag, Aswan, Menoufiya, Sharqiya, Beheira, Ismailia and Suez continues today, with run-off elections scheduled for 21 and 22 December. Voters are casting their ballots at 4,589 polling stations, supervised by almost 10,000 judges. A total of 3,387 candidates are competing for 180 parliamentary seats, 60 reserved for independents and 120 for party lists to be determined proportionally. The Cabinet Information Decision Support Centre (IDSC) says 18.7 million voters in Egypt are eligible to vote in the second round. Their number will be supplemented by the ballots of 355,000 expatriate Egyptians. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which won 75 seats -- 43 per cent of the total -- in the first stage, is hoping to replicate its success. In a statement on 11 December the FJP said 55 of its candidates will be competing as independents, and 120 on party lists. Among them is Essam El-Erian, a leading Brotherhood figure, who is running in Giza. The bulk of FJPs candidates are concentrated in the rural Delta governorates of Beheira, Sharqiya and Menoufiya. Though long considered Islamist strongholds, they face opposition from ex-stalwarts of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's now defunct ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). In Menoufiya -- the governorate from which former presidents Mubarak and Sadat both hail -- FJP candidates are braced for stiffer opposition. In the Upper Egyptian governorate of Sohag tribal and clan loyalties may play against the FJP and other Islamist parties. Members of leading families have traditionally represented the area for the NDP and will fight hard to retain their parliamentary seats. The same is true of Aswan and Beni Sweif where NDP remnants remain a strong force, while in the Sharqiya district of Abu Kebeir, Ali El-Moselhi, a former NDP minister of social solidarity, is running against two Islamist rivals. Results from the Suez Canal governorates of Ismailia and Suez will be watched with particular interest. Neither is considered a Brotherhood stronghold. The ultra-conservative Nour Party is fielding 114 candidates. In the first stage of elections Nour won 28 party-list seats but in the run-off round secured just six of the 56 independent seats up for grabs. Salafi spokesman Abdel-Moneim El-Shahat failed to win in Alexandria, suffering an embarrassing defeat at the hands of secular lawyer Hosni Dowidar. Among the other Islamist groups Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Reconstruction and Development Party is fielding 16 candidates, 13 of them in independent seats. The Wasat has 79 candidates. Neither managed a breakthrough in the first round of the poll, winning two and four seats respectively, a situation few observers expect to change. Secular parties, which have so far trailed their Islamist rivals, will be looking to compensate for first round losses. The Egyptian Bloc -- an alliance of the Social Democratic, Free Egyptians and Tagammu Parties -- will compete for only 30 per cent of second round independent seats. Its party-list showing is far stronger, with candidates battling for 90 per cent of available seats. Youth Coalition of the Egyptian Revolution activists Khaled Talima, Mohamed El-Qassas and Islam Lotfi are standing on the Egyptian Bloc ticket. The Wafd, led by businessman El-Sayed El-Badawi, and the Reform and Development Party, led by Anwar Esmat El-Sadat, are fielding 118 and 108 candidates respectively. NDP offshoots, including the Egyptian Citizen, Conservative and Horreya parties are fielding 200 candidates between them. Another 100 NDP stalwarts are standing as independents. Giza promises to be the toughest of the second stage battlegrounds. Leading FJP figures Essam El-Erian and Azab Mustafa -- both of whom served as Brotherhood MPs -- face challenges from the Wafd Party's Abdel-Wahab Khalil, a former chief security officer of Giza, and the Egyptian Bloc candidates El-Omda Shanab, a former MP, and Abdel-Rashid Hilal, a leading member of the Tagammu Party. In Giza's Imbaba and Doqqi districts Al-Ahram political analyst Amr El-Shobaki is standing for the Adl Party, Kamal Abu Eita for the Nasserist Karama (Dignity) Party, and former national team goalkeeper Nader El-Sayed for the Wasat. In Beheira the fiercest battles are expected to be between the FJP, the Nour and former members of the NDP. Damanhour, Beheira's capital, sees FJP leader Gamal Heshmat, a former Brotherhood MP who heads his party list, pitted against Egyptian Bloc and Egyptian Citizen Party candidates. Though many expect Beheira to swing behind the Islamists, NDP veterans are hoping to pull-off an upset. In Kom Hamada district, for example, Farouk El-Mikrahi, a former chief police officer and NDP MP, could make a strong showing against his FJP rival Abdel-Hamid Shukr. Early reports suggest a high turn out across all participating governorates though in Giza's smarter districts early morning crowds outside polling stations were smaller than elsewhere. During a visit to Dokki's Gamal Abdel-Nasser polling station US Ambassador Ann Patterson described the first stage of elections as "a success", singling out for praise the participation of large numbers of women eager to exercise their political rights. Boutros Boutros Ghali, former UN secretary-general and head of Egypt's High Council for Human Rights, voted in Giza Secondary School, the polling station close to his home. After taking a tour of polling stations in Giza Boutros Ghali dubbed the queues of voters he came across as "lines of democracy". The queues were longest in Giza's most densely populated districts, low income areas such as Boulaq and Kerdasa. Also in Giza, the polling station in Al-Saff district was closed after the supporters of two rival candidates exchanged fire. In Sohag an independent candidate died after suffering a heart attack. Problems that had appeared during the first stage of the ballot -- not least campaigning during voting -- resurfaced despite warnings that anyone violating election rules faced arrest. In Suez the head of security confirmed to reporters that he had given orders that anyone found hanging banners in front of polling stations should be detained. The Salafist Nour Party, which is fielding 114 candidates in the second stage, seems to have been the worst offender, heavily campaigning during polling hours. Candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party insist that they will keep to election rules and urged others to do the same. Many judges supervising polling stations complained that they had to delay opening because ballot papers were late arriving. Others withdrew from the second stage completely after facing severe problems supervising the first round of the poll. To add to the confusion party list ballots in Beheira, Sohag and Menoufiya have been delayed until 21 and 22 December after an administrative court found the ballot papers of some constituencies failed to include the names of all competing parties.
