Polling stations have shut their doors, signaling the end of a parliamentary race that stirred considerable public outrage, prompted numerous legal disputes, and raised serious questions as to Egypt's political trajectory. The poll results are expected to tighten the grip of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which had already secured a majority of more than 95 percent in the first round of voting last week. The vote appears to have sealed the fate of the opposition, meanwhile, with only a modest handful of opposition candidates winning seats in the first round and a couple dozen competing in Sunday's second round. Last week's contest also saw candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood failing to win a single seat. The group, Egypt's largest and best organized opposition force, won 88 seats--roughly one fifth of the People's Assembly--in 2005 parliamentary elections. While NDP leaders basked in their landslide victory, opposition leaders cried foul, citing ballot fixing and voter intimidation as reasons for their surprisingly weak showing. In the aftermath of the first round, the brotherhood and liberal opposition Wafd Party announced decisions to boycott the runoffs to protest alleged electoral violations. This year's poll was also accompanied by several court rulings annulling the vote in districts in which fraud and discrimination against opposition candidates were reported. According to some observers, the NDP attempt to lock down the national assembly aims to silence the opposition ahead of critical presidential elections set for late next year. Analysts say that the NDP's continued domination of Egypt's political scene, however, has turned many Egyptian would-be voters off of electoral participation. In Sunday's runoffs, elections monitors noted that turnout was as little as 5 percent in some districts. Head of the High Elections Commission (HEC)'s operations room Ahmed Shawqi told Al-Masry Al-Youm that voter turnout for the runoffs in most districts was “very low.” Shawqi blamed the low turnout on the decision by the brotherhood and Wafd Party to withdraw from the parliamentary contest. Last week, official turnout figures diverged from unofficial figures. While the HEC announced that 35 percent of Egypt's 41 million registered voters had cast ballots, independent observers put turnout at between 10 and 15 percent. Meanwhile, violent acts were reported at several polling centers across the country on Sunday. In North Sinai, three people were injured in clashes between supporters of an NDP candidate and those of an independent nominee. In northern Cairo, NDP-backed thugs allegedly electrocuted voters supporting Wafd Party candidate Rami Lakkah, who is running for the professional seat in the Shubra district. Observers have also alleged that voting was rigged in favor of ruling party nominees in several districts throughout Egypt. Local residents of Daqahliya's Sandeela district, citing electoral fraud by the NDP, stormed a local polling station on Sunday and smashed 17 ballot boxes. Residents claimed the boxes had been stuffed with ballots fixed in favor of NDP candidates. Amid abundant reports of vote rigging in favor of the NDP, one independent monitor said that ballots in Daqahliya had been fixed to allow a candidate from the leftist Tagammu Party to win. Tagammu, breaking ranks with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd Party, had decided to contest Sunday's runoffs. Final results of the second round are expected to be made available on Tuesday.
