CAIRO: The election committee on Monday lowered its turnout figure for the opening phase of Egypt's first election since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, revising it to 52 percent from 62 percent. "After counting, the turnout rate in the first phase of the first round of parliamentary elections is 52 percent and not 62 percent as announced at the first press conference," commission chief Abdel Moez Ibrahim said. Ibrahim had declared turnout was a record and the highest "since the Pharoahs" at the news conference last Friday, and the major revision is likely to raise further questions about the commission's competency. The publication of results, initially set for Wednesday night, was delayed until the weekend amid widespread confusion. At the news conference, Ibrahim gave some of the results to the assembled media before abruptly leaving the room and declaring he was tired and had "run out of gas." The commission has a crucial role in the highly complex and lengthy election process chosen by the interim military rulers to usher in democracy after the toppling of president Mubarak's 30-year regime in February. The country is electing a lower house of parliament in three rounds of voting that began on November 28-29 and will end only on January 3. After each round there is also a run-off vote scheduled a week later. The country will then head into another three-round election to choose an upper house. In the areas which voted last week, 65 percent of voters picked Islamist parties, with the more moderate Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in first place with 36.6 percent and the hardline Al-Nour in second with 24.4 percent. A run-off vote between candidates standing for individual seats was underway on Monday, with Islamists expected to extend their crushing early victory.
