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| Africa North |
| Egyptian Police Battle Voters; One Killed |
| 2005-12-01 |
| SANDOUB, Egypt Dec 1, 2005 — Riot police battled voters Thursday, killing one person and blocking entry to polling stations in opposition strongholds in the third and final round of Egypt's legislative elections. Police fired into a crowd in the Balteem district of Kafr el-Sheik, killing Gomaa el-Zeftawi, a fisherman, and wounding 60 other people, said Mohammed el-Ashqar, a campaign worker for a Nasserite opposition candidate. Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Ibrahim Hamad confirmed the killing of el-Zeftawi, the second fatality since the elections began Nov. 9, but he did not give a figure for the wounded. Minutes earlier Hamad had issued a statement saying polling had "unfolded in a smooth and peaceful manner." In one village, men and women determined to vote resorted to sneaking into the polling station, putting up ladders to climb over back walls out of sight of police barring the entrance and slipping through bathroom windows to get in. Voting proceeded normally in some towns, but in two villages visited by an Associated Press reporter one the hometown of a Muslim Brotherhood candidate, the other of an independent candidate police were blocking voters. In some southern towns, voters were intimidated by lines of police outside stations. "I'm calling on his excellency, the president, to appoint the members of parliament because no one has been allowed to vote. 
It would save the money wasted on elections," Sameer Fikri, a would-be voter in the village of Sandoub, said sarcastically. Under U.S. pressure to bring democratic reforms, President Hosni Mubarak's government gave the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic movement, considerable leeway to campaign in the early stages of the three-part elections. But police interference has intensified in the later rounds, after the Brotherhood scored unexpectedly large gains, increasing its representation in parliament more than fivefold. In some towns, such as the Delta city of Zagazig, where a Brotherhood candidate was favored, voting proceeded without violence or intimidation. But in several constituencies, The Associated Press saw that voters had been barred. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 The Egyptian government demonstrates that it realizes that its' true enemy is the voting citizenry of Egypt. |
| Posted by: Scott R 2005-12-01 19:50 |