Obstructing of Egyptian voters; violence delay announcement results
The last phase of the Egyptian legislative elections ended without the appearance of preliminary results of the process to elect 136 out of 445 parliamentarians.
Al-Jazeera satellite tv attributed the delay in announcing the results to the obstruction of the voters who gathered to cast their votes in certain circles, as well as the acts of violence which accompanied the voting operations in certain governorates.
The Elections which included the governorates of al Dqehliyeh; al Qilyoubeyah; alSharqeyah; Dumiat; Kafer al Sheikh; Suhaj; Aswan; the Red Sea and North/ South of Sinai witnessed a large intervention by the police in order to prevent the voters from entering the voting centers. This resulted in confrontations in one of the voting circles in which one person was killed by bullets; while the reports today indicated that another man was also killed.
The Egyptian Human Rights Organization said that the security forces prevented the access of voters to the voting centers, killed one supporter of the Naserite candidate Hamdin Sabahi in Balteim city on the Mediterranean, and injured other scores, and said that the man was killed as a result of the confrontation between the supporters of al-Sabahi and the candidate of the national ruling party.
Witnesses said that the riot fighting forces cordoned elections committees in the Nile Delta and did not permit except few number of voters through queues of soldiers, and the voters clashed with the security forces which used tear bombs in many areas.
Egyptian medical sources said that more than 70 persons were admitted to hospitals in kafer al- Sheikh governorate, many of them were injured by bullets and others were suffocated because of the tear gas. News reports said that the Deputy British ambassador in Cairo inspected several voting committees in al-Daqhleyah and Kafer al-Sheikh governorates. The reasons behind the visit was not known.
In al-Mansoura north of Cairo, violent clashes took place between the supporters of the candidates of the national party and the Muslim Brothers before one of the committees in Bander al-Mansoura circle resulted in several casualties.
Supporters of the Muslim Brothers said that the central security forces prevented them from casting their votes. A matter which enhanced the opportunities of the national party candidate before the candidate of the Muslim Brothers. This was however, denied by the police officials in the city.