Killings mar Egyptian elections

Egyptian police have been using teargas to disperse voters

By Caroline Hawley in Cairo

At least two Egyptians have been killed on the final day of voting in the country's month-long parliamentary elections.

Witnesses said they were shot during clashes that broke out when security forces prevented voters from entering the polling booths in the village of El-Amer, north of Cairo.

In several other constituencies police fired tear gas to disperse angry crowds wanting to vote.

Police have been accused of stopping Islamists from voting

In the northern Cairo suburb of Shubra al-Kheima an old man carried an empty teargas canister as his memento of what the government had promised would be the country's fairest election to date.

With judges monitoring the ballot boxes themselves, the authorities have found other means of trying to ensure that this final round of elections goes their way.

Police action

Tear gas was used to disperse would-be voters in Shubra al-Kheima and other areas where there is strong support for candidates from Egypt's largest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

At other polling stations where candidates from the ruling NDP party were under pressure, riot police stood guard at barricades preventing voters from entering.

Residents of some areas said they had been attacked while trying to vote by thugs who appeared to work either for the police or for ruling party candidates.

One angry woman who had been unable to cast her ballot said this was not the democracy she had heard about on television.