The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has declared that its electoral lists won 37.2 percent of votes in the second phase of elections for Egypt's lower house, the People's Assembly. Only the second constituency in the Giza governorate has not yet announced the results of its vote count, according to the statement made by the FJP late Sunday. The FJP said it won a total of 3.17 million out of 10.86 million valid votes for seats contested through the list-based candidacy system. The FJP revealed it will compete in the runoffs for this phase with 47 candidates: 10 in Sharqiya, nine in Giza, four in Monufiya, six in Beni Suef, one in Ismailia, one in Suez, two in Aswan and four in Sohag. Turnout in the second round of Egypt's parliamentary election reached 67 percent, according to Abdel Moez Ibrahim, the head of the high elections commission. Ibrahim was speaking at a news conference on Sunday. More than 12 million voters cast their ballots on Wednesday and Thursday in nine of the country's 27 provinces. The total number of eligible voters is almost 19 million. There will be a run-off in most of the constituencies next Wednesday, as few individual candidates managed to secure a majority of votes. Two-thirds of the new parliament's 498 seats are allocated to parties, with the remainder earmarked for independent candidates. The list led by the FJP won more votes than it did in the first round, a party source told Reuters on Sunday. The poll, held over six weeks, is the first since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February. Official results have not been released but party representatives watch the count and their predictions after the first round were largely accurate. Independent monitors have warned of electoral abuses, such as illegal campaigning outside polling stations. The first-round vote in one district of Cairo will be re-run after ballots were lost or damaged during counting. The elections commission has said that the violations have not undermined the vote's overall legitimacy.
