Bloodshed mars Egypt Vote

Egypt's ruling party has maintained its grip on power, according to partial election results issued on Thursday after a final day of voting was marred by violent attempts to curb Islamist gains.

Nine people were killed in clashes between police and Islamists during the last round on Wednesday of month-long parliamentary polls, which have drawn US condemnation over electoral abuse.

Partial results released by the electoral commission showed that the National Democratic Party of veteran President Hosni Mubarak and affiliated independents won at least 314 seats over three rounds.

The results give the ruling bloc a two-thirds majority in parliament and the ability to pass constitutional amendments or emergency laws, but its tally falls short of the 404 seats it mustered in the 2000 polls.

The main opposition force, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, won at least 88 seats in the 454-strong People's Assembly, six times the number of MPs that it had in the outgoing chamber.

"We will be an opposition group, a strong opposition group," Brotherhood spokesman Issam Al Aryan said.

By clinching almost 20 percent of parliament seats despite fielding less than half of the maximum 444 candidates, the group founded in 1922 by Hassan Al Banna made the most serious dent in Mubarak's 24-year-old autocratic rule.

With more results to be announced on Thursday and seven candidates involved in 12 re-runs, the movement, which has renounced violence after a bloody past, could still edge closer to the 100 mark.

Scores of polling stations were sealed off by police on Wednesday, especially in areas where candidates representing the Muslim Brotherhood were contesting the final runoffs, fueling frustration that often spilled over into violence.

According to medical and security sources, nine Egyptians were killed in clashes outside polling stations, mainly between security forces and Islamist supporters.

Scenes reminiscent of the Palestinian intifada filled the streets of Nile Delta towns and villages in northern Egypt, as youngsters armed with stones played cat-and-mouse with riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

The independent daily Nahdet Masr described the situation as "a siege slapped on the Muslim Brothers" by the government.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights reported that hundreds of polling stations had been closed nearly all day.

"Only NDP supporters have been allowed to enter polling stations using their party IDs," it said in a statement.

"This blatant biased intervention of security forces in the election undermines the transparency of the voting process and clearly points to the government's intent to tamper with the results," the Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development said in a report.

The interior ministry denied any attempt to prevent voting and insisted that the election was "proceeding smoothly" and that the violence was instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents, conducted a well-crafted campaign under the slogan "Islam is the solution", but the scope of its gains surprised observers.

The movement advocates the implementation of Islamic law but has made conciliatory statements toward the country's Christian minority.

According to unofficial results, the final round saw rare victories for two prominent members of the secular opposition, one from the liberal Wafd and the other from the Nasserist Karama party.

Ghad party leader and presidential runner-up Ayman Nour crashed to a stinging defeat in his own Cairo bastion in the first phase of the polls and was jailed earlier this week even before the end of his forgery trial.

So far, only four women and one Coptic Christian have won seats.

Washington - which had made Egypt a kingpin of its policy of democratization in the region - had hailed Egypt's first pluralist presidential elections in September as a landmark.

But in a marked shift, it voiced serious concern on Tuesday over electoral abuses and said that its key Middle East ally was sending the "wrong signal" about its commitment to democracy.