Monday’s papers: Run-offs, ‘void’ parliaments, murderous sharks

Unsurprisingly, headlines in Monday's papers are dominated by updates on the parliamentary elections, the run-offs for which were held yesterday. “New seats for the opposition and a massive victory for the National Democratic Party,” reads Al-Ahram’s headline.

The state-owned paper confirms the “calmness” and “order” that, in its opinion, characterized the run-offs, reporting the closing of the ballot boxes at 7PM was met with an “air of tranquility” in Cairo’s neighborhoods. The paper then goes on to describe preliminary results as promising "a comfortable majority" of parliamentary seats for members of the NDP, while opposition seats will also increase by an unspecified amount.

According to Al-Ahram, the run-off session saw 566 candidates vie for 283 seats across 166 districts. The paper’s report also includes a quote from NDP Secretary-General Safwat al-Sherif, who says that the “National Democratic Party has gone to great lengths to ensure the overall transparency and complete clarity of the electoral process.”

Al-Sherif’s quote also makes the front page of Al-Akhbar, with another adjective–"legal"–added to describe the process. The state-owned paper reports on “individual and unrelated” incidents of violence across the country’s governorates, but concludes that the overall level of violence for this run-off round “decreased due to the absence of trouble-making candidates.”

While Al-Ahram’s front-page report mentions “11 members of Wafd Party vowing to withdraw from the elections” as a form of protest, Al-Akhbar updates the story with a quote from the High Elections Commission, which says that “all those who had announced their withdrawal from the elections ended up participating in them, with the exception of one candidate.”

Headlines also promise that preliminary results will be available Monday evening, with the final results scheduled to be announced the following day.

As expected, reports from the independent and opposition newspapers seem to describe an entirely different election altogether. “Run-off session marked by an absence of voters,” says independent daily Al-Shorouk, describing the “continuation of violence and vote-buying across Egypt’s governorates.”

The paper also claims that 84 percent of the parliamentary seats available had already been “secured” by the NDP before the election results had even been announced.

Al-Shorouk also reports on the “intensive security measures” and “heavy state police presence” throughout the elections. However, that did not seem to prevent the armed confrontations which the paper says took place in several districts, including one incident in Assiut on Sunday which left at least three men suffering from gunshot wounds. According to Al-Shorouk, police forces also arrested 17 young men in Qena on Sunday, for “planning to incite violence between the opposing parties.”

Al-Shorouk’s front page features a "special report" on the elections which says that “a court order has been issued by the Administrative Judiciary calling for the cancellation of the entire election in 28 different districts, with an immediate cessation of the run-off sessions.”

The court order, which, according to the paper, has already been put into effect in Monoufeya and Shibeen al-Kom, stems from a protest held by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition parties in front of the Administrative Judiciary courthouse in Qalyubiya over the “widespread corruption and forgery afflicting the election process” and a general lack of transparency.

Independent daily Al-Dostour’s headline reads, in big red letters, “Ezz’s parliament is void”–a reference to businessman and prominent NDP member Ahmed Ezz. Through a series of statements made by members of the Administrative Judicial courts and “constitutional law experts,” the paper reports that the court ruling mentioned in Al-Shorouk’s “special report” constitutes a “historical event” and should be considered proof that the elections should be declared null and void.

Also on Al-Dostour’s front page is a report in which representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood announce that their party received more votes in this round of elections than it did in the previous elections, held in 2005, adding that their participation this time “caused a great embarrassment to the system, from outside as well as within.”

Speaking at a press conference held in Alexandria on Sunday, official Brotherhood spokesman Hussein Mohamed Ibrahim said that his party will “continue unabated on its journey, in spite of the barbaric tactics” which they had to deal with. Ibrahim added that the Brotherhood was determined to fight for “the right of the Egyptian people to choose their own elected representatives.”

In what Al-Dostour calls the “latest joke,” the paper reports on an “oppositional committee” formed by the NDP to “make up for the void left after the withdrawal of Al-Wafd and Muslim Brotherhood candidates from the elections.” According to the paper, the new, fake opposition party will “adopt the opinions held by actual opposition parties."

In non-election-related news, a 70-year-old German woman was attacked and killed by a shark while swimming off the coast of the Red Sea. This is the fourth such attack to occur in the span of one week, coming only days after authorities reported that the murderous sharks had, in fact, been caught and killed.