Scattered violence and low voter turnout have marked the first few hours of today's parliamentary poll, amid common irregularities. The son of an independent candidate in the Mattariya district in Cairo died today after he was stabbed on Saturday several times while trying to hang up a leaflet supporting his father. Amr Sayyed Abu Amr, the victim, is the first casualty of elections day. Clashes erupted in a polling station in Arish, North Sinai, where two were reportedly injured. The clashes took place between supporters of the two ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) candidates who were contesting the district's seat. Clashes also occurred between supporters of a Wafd Party candidate and police forces in Kom Ombo constituency, Aswan. The candidate's supporters claimed they were denied access to the polling station and beaten by rival NDP candidate supporters. Heavy security was spread around the upper Egyptian city of Nagaa Hammadi, in Qena, where violent sectarian clashes left six Copts and one Muslim dead earlier this year. The police resorted to using tear gas to separate voters and protestors in Samanoud district, Gharbiya, amid a heavy presence of thugs, sources witnessed. A member of Wafd Party candidate Rami Lakkah's campaign team in Shubra reported a deliberate attempt to prevent voters from entering polling stations. Lakkah threatened to withdraw from the race if voters were not allowed to enter polling stations. Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood who had obtained official powers of attorney to follow the electoral process from within polling stations were nevertheless denied access, Al-Masry Al-Youm reporters witnessed in Cairo's Nasr City district, Giza's Dokki district, and others. “200 delegates were prevented by plainclothes police from accessing 30 polling stations in Dokki and Agouza,” Mohamed Saeed, the Brotherhood spokesperson for the area, told Al-Masry Al-Youm. Sobhi Saleh, Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Alexandria, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that police were preventing his representatives from entering polling stations as well. Pictures of NDP candidates and slogans in support of the candidates were seen hung around fences of polling stations in Dokki, Agouza and Nasr City, while opposition or independent candidates' posters were noticeably absent. Voter turn out was still low during the first hours of elections day, according to witnesses. “I haven't missed elections since 1981 because I have a sense of responsibility toward this country. The biggest problem is that people complain and when it comes to action, they don't do anything,” said Mohamed Samir, an engineer, in Giza. Voters complained about the difficulty of the process in certain districts. “The voters lists are badly organized. It's very hard to find names. I had to go to one polling station in the morning and didn't find my name. Then I went to another one. It took me an hour to cast my vote,” added Samir. “If we had real democracy, police shouldn't be inside the polling station," said Mohamed Hassan, a 27-year-old lawyer from Giza. Samia Hussein, a housewife with four children from the Mit Oqba neighborhood in Giza, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that she will be voting for the NDP candidates. “I vote for them because of our condition. Whenever we need anything they help us. Mr. Sayyed Gohar and Ms. Amal Othman sent us gifts in Ramadan and paid for our children's private lessons,” she said. Ahmed Shawqi, a member of the High Elections Commission, said that so far voter turnout at polling stations has been average. “Looking at the period leading up to the elections and including what we have seen today, it's worse than 2005,” said Tom Malinowski, the head of the Human Rights Watch Washington bureau who is in Cairo observing the elections. Malinowski was standing outside of a polling station in the Dokki/Agouza district, which had been forcibly closed. “Why would they close it? When you have no international observers and no domestic observers outside and no judicial monitors inside polling stations, and they are all ruling party voters inside, that has the effect of rigging the election in this polling station at least,” said Malinowski. In an initial observation on the progress so far, Ahmad Fawzy, director of the Egyptian Association for the Enhancement of Political Participation said, “Turnout is lower than expected. People didn't vote because the electoral process lacks judicial supervision and candidates didn't spend money directly on them.” He added that most candidates' expenditure had been directed toward bribing those in charge of polling stations. A witness told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he saw yesterday at night a truck-full of filled ballot boxes being taken into a polling station in Heliopolis.
