CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Salafi Al-Nour Party will be facing off in the run offs over single winner seats in the second round of parliamentary elections slated for Wednesday and Thursday, having won almost 70 percent of the party list votes in the nine governorates of round two. The elections, which were held in Giza, Beni Suef, Menufiya, Sharqia, Beheira, Sohag, Ismailia, Aswan and Suez, saw the FJP-led Democratic Alliance win 37 percent of the party list votes, worth around 30 seats, and Al-Nour 33 percent worth around 20 seats. Al-Wafd won nine seats, while the liberal Egyptian Bloc, spearheaded by the Free Egyptians Party, won around seven, and the Reform and Development Party, an offshoot of the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP) won two seats. The moderate Al-Wasat Party and the Revolution Continues Alliance, which consists of a group of youth coalitions, won one seat each along with other NDP offshoots such as the Egyptian Citizen Party, The Egyptian Union Party, Egypt's Nationalist Party, and The New Independents Party. All but one of the 60 single winner seats will be contested in the run offs. In Menufiya, Mohammed Anwar Ahmed Esmat El Sadat won an absolute majority in the race for the professionals' seat in the city's second constituency Tala. The competition is mostly between the FJP and Al-Nour with a handful of independent candidates. The FJP's 47 individual candidates are spread over all nine governorates, and so are Al-Nour's 36 candidates. Prominent independent political analyst Dr. Amr El-Chobaky will face a fierce battle in Giza against the FJP's Amr Derag. The second round run offs of Egypt's staggered parliamentary elections take place amid heightened violence between protesters demanding an immediate transfer of power from the ruling army council to a civilian authority and security forces that left at least 12 dead and over 800 injured since Friday.
