A group of US experts urged the Obama Administration to press President Hosni Mubarak's regime to adopt "a new course toward political reform" after Sunday's polls revealed a "profoundly flawed election" characterized by a lack of transparency, widespread fraud, and intimidation. The Working Group on Egypt, a bipartisan group representing a broad range of institutions, said in a statement Wednesday that the irregularities occurring during the elections process "indicate that Mubarak's regime remains resistant to domestic and international calls for reform." Official figures for the first round of the parliamentary election showed that ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won 209 of 221 seats while the generally tolerated but outlawed Muslim Brotherhood failed to garner a single seat. "Despite Mubarak's promise that Egypt would undertake political reform at its own pace, the recent elections were more problematic than those of 2005 and represent a clear step backward," the statement added. The Muslim Brotherhood and the liberal Wafd Party, the two largest opposition parties in the last parliament, decided to withdraw from the run-off elections, citing widespread election fraud. The United States has expressed dismay by reports that voters and candidates were intimidated at Sunday's poll. "Clear evidence of ballot fraud, police intimidation, thug violence, and the exclusion of certified domestic monitors from polling stations," constitutes some irregularities cited by the statement. Human rights groups said that the elections were marred with violence that took 16 lives in addition to injuring 100 people throughout Egypt during Sunday's poll. With such a "profoundly flawed [parliamentary] election," the pivotal presidential election scheduled for next year will bring a president lacking the "political legitimacy that is essential to maintaining domestic and regional stability," concluded the statement. The Working Group urged the Obama administration "to develop a comprehensive strategy that will urge Egypt onto the path to free and fair elections.” It suggested that Congress adopt legislation "that calls on Egypt to protect human rights and introduce political reforms."
