Egyptians vote in parliamentary elections

Egyptians vote in parliamentary elections

CAIRO: Egyptians voted on Wednesday in the first stage of legislative elections expected to make only minor inroads in the domination of parliament by President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP). Some voters and witnesses reported skirmishes and electoral abuses in the first few hours after polls opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), but others saw an improvement in the political climate. The overall level of violence appeared lower than in previous elections. In the south Cairo suburb of Maadi, NDP supporters scared away voters until security forces arrived, witnesses said. One voter there, Karim Mahmoud, said: “This is not democracy. Thugs intimidated me with knives. Only when security forces came much later was I able to go inside.” Wael Omar, a cameraman for the monitoring group Shayfeenkum (We are watching you), said a fight broke out at a polling station in the Torah area. “I was filming (the fight) when an NDP-backed thug punched me in the mouth, insulted me and told me to leave. Security people just stood by,” he told Reuters. reuters