Egyptian opposition gains foothold

The elections were marred by violence - but the opposition did win seats

By Caroline Hawley in Cairo

President Mubarak's ruling NDP party has won at least 85% of the seats in the Egyptian parliament, after a month-long election marred by complaints of intimidation against opposition voters.

The Interior Minister, Habib el-Adly, told state television that the party had 388 of the 454 seats.

The NDP party had more than 90% of seats in the last parliament.

Muslim Brotherhood posters were defaced

But, despite widespread harassment, the technically-banned Muslim Brotherhood has emerged with at least 16 seats.

The Egyptian Government had heralded these elections as a major stride towards democracy.

For the first time they were monitored by judges, who prevented the kind of stuffing of ballot boxes that has been so common in the past.

In the first round of voting, several key members of the ruling NDP party lost their seats and the Muslim Brotherhood, which was fielding candidates as independents, made significant gains.

But as the election wore on, the authorities stepped up their attempts to influence the outcome.

Harassment

As one pro-democracy campaigner put it, the Egyptian Government made clear it was not prepared to pay the price of reform.

In many areas security forces blatantly prevented voters from reaching the ballot boxes.

The Muslim Brotherhood's total of 16 seats is less than it had in the 1980s, but it marks a big return to parliament after more than a decade outside.

The ruling NDP still has an overwhelming majority but it knows that the message of the election was that Egyptians wanted change.