HUNDREDS of thousands of voters converged on polling stations across the nation from the early hours of the morning Tuesday to pick 74 new members for the Shura Council amid reports of violence, vote-rigging, and bias to the candidates of the ruling National Democratic Part (NDP). Policemen were reported to have blocked the entrance of voters supporting the candidates of the banned Islamist organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, while in some polling stations the representatives of non-NDP candidates were kicked out, according to news reports and several NGOs that monitored the elections. “I see nobody but security men everywhere,” said Adel Abdel Reheem, a journalist for the news website el-Muheet. “Voters are nowhere to be found,” he added. Around 446 candidates, including 92 from the NDP, have competed over 74 seats in the mid-term elections of the Upper House of the Parliament, which was given extra legislative powers according to a package of constitutional amendments in 2007. The ruling party hopes to secure a complete majority in the elections to continue what it describes as its plans for economic and political reform. Tuesday, the central Cairo premises of the party, which was recently given a lavish overhaul, was turned into a beehive. Around 200 fresh faced men and women staffed the operations room at the party and made contacts with everybody to ensure that party candidates got the necessary support. “We've been preparing for this day for four months now,” said the party's Media Committee Chairman Alieeddin Helal. “This is the first time our candidates have tailored their programmes to the specific needs of their constituencies,” he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. Behind him, steel baron and Organisation Committee Chairman Ahmed Ezz who steered work in this operations room was busy making all kinds of calls and contacts. Helal said the elections were significant in that they could epitomise the taste of the next People's Assembly and Shura Council elections. “The importance of the elections is also very clear in the number of candidates who are running for seats,” he added. Away from the air-conditioned rooms and the glittering granite floors of the premises of the ruling party, quarrels ��" in some cases they amounted to exchanges of gunfire ��" were reported in several constituencies around the nation. Loud-mouthed yobs and gangsters controlled some polling stations, while some ballot boxes were stuffed with voting cards in favour of the candidates of the NDP, according to the website of the Arabic language weekly Al-Youm Al-Sabie. The Muslim Brotherhood, this country's most vibrant opposition group, had fielded 15 candidates in the elections. Brotherhood contenders, who run as independents, were prevented from entering some polling stations, while the supporters of others were beaten, according to reports provided by election monitoring groups. Judge Intissar Nassim, the head of the higher electoral commission,, said later in the day that the braws that erupted in some constiuencies did not affect the process in general. President Hosni Mubarak, who had just returned from France, and his wife Suzanne Mubarak cast their votes in a polling station north of Cairo. The President exchanged a few words with the people who managed the polling station, the official Middle East News Agency said. Vote counting started after polling stations closed down at 7:00pm. Election results might be announced early on Wednesday.
