Egypt

Military police remove Freedom and Justice Party tent

Military police have removed a tent set up by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Cairo's seventh constituency.

The constituency includes Gamaliya, Menshaat Nasser, al-Darb al-Ahmar, Bab al-Shariya and Dhaher.

Supporters of Khaled Mohamed, the FJP candidate for the professional seat, had set up a pavilion in front of Al-Azhariya school's polling station. They used loudspeakers to urge voters to support their candidate, violating electoral rules.

In Cairo's second constituency — which includes Zeitoun, Amiriya, Waily and Hadayek al-Qobba supporters of the Salafi-led Nour Party backed FJP candidates Amr Mohamed Zaki and Yasser Ibrahim Abdallah Mohamed over the candidates from the liberal Egyptian Bloc, Mohamed Abdel Ghany and Shaaban Hassan.

Father Royes Morkos, Coptic Pope Shenouda III's secretary, accused people outside polling stations in Alexandria of attempting to influence voters.

Morkos, who had cast his vote at Al-Gamea al-Arabiya school in Alexandria's Raml district, said Copts have been participating more actively than in previous elections. He reiterated Shenouda III's directives to Coptic voters to support the best qualified candidates diregarding their religion.

Voter turnout remained low on Tuesday, the second day of run-off elections for the People's Assembly elections that started on 28 November.

Polls opened at 8 am in the nine governorates participating in the first stage of Egypt's first post-Hosni Mubarak parliamentary elections. The run-offs will determine who is awarded single-winner seats in the new parliament.

Police and army forces have been stationed around polling stations. Supervising judges removed red wax seals from ballot boxes and opened stations' windows, which were shut on Monday at 7 pm.

The Interior Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that all polling security measures have been put in place. The ministry said it has not received any complaints related to tampering with ballot boxes.

Meanwhile, a report released Tuesday by a human rights group said very few people turned out to vote in the run-offs.

The One World Foundation report said some polling stations had no more than five voters, while other stations didn't have any. It also reported delays in opening some stations when elections employees arrived late.

The report said there were bribes for votes in Alexandria. According to the report, candidate Tarek Talaat Mostafa, a former member of the disbanded National Democratic Party and FJP supporters gave out meals to voters, as well as to employees supervising the votes inside polling stations.

Run-offs are being held in 27 constituencies in nine governorates: Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, Luxor, Kafr al-Sheikh, Port Said, Red Sea, Damietta and Fayoum. They will determine 52 winners out of 104 total candidates.

In the first round, voters cast ballots for both single-winner and list-based candidates. As of yet, only four candidates for single-winner seats have been declared victors.

Out of the 104 running, 48 candidates belong to the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party and 36 belong to the Salafi-led Nour Party. Fourteen candidates belong to the Egyptian Bloc electoral list, one belongs to the Wafd Party, one belongs to the Egypt National Party, and four candidates are running as independents.

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