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Egypt: Irregularities during Shura elections bode poorly for upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections

The National Democratic Ruling Party captured 80, of the 88 seats contested where 14 ruling party candidates ran unopposed.

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 Amr Hashem Rabie, an expert on parliamentary affairs at the semi-official Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies asserted recently that the Shura elections revealed widespread electoral fraud at the ballot box and during the electoral procedure

 

The National Democratic Ruling Party captured 80, of the 88 seats contested where 14 ruling party candidates ran unopposed. Only three seats went to independent candidates while 5 seats were acquired by the Tagammu, Nasserist, Al-Geel, Al-Ghad and Al-Wafd parties despite having fielded 39 of the 446 candidates that ran. Three seats went to independent candidates


Surprisingly The Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement Egypt 's largest opposition did not win a single seat, despite having fielded 15 candidates. In fact the Brotherhood currently holds 88 seats in the 454-seat People's Assembly proving it enjoys wide popularity. According to Rabie, the election results speak for themselves. "How could the Muslim Brotherhood, which won 88 seats in 2005 parliamentary elections, fail to win a single seat in the Shura race. According to Rabie, the ruling party's major intention in any election is to hinder the Muslim Brotherhood since it continues to be the only genuine political threat to the ruling regime

Many independent analysts and opposition figures view the Shura elections as a sign of what can be anticipated in the upcoming People's Assembly elections, slated for October, and presidential elections in 2011 

Rabie maintained that without the regimes accustomed vote rigging, the Brotherhood would undoubtedly win a lot more seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections than the 88 they captured in 2005 hence, the regime, intends  to secure elections by allocating  the Brotherhood's current seats to the smaller insignificant  opposition parties