Islamist parties take the lead in preliminary election results

[oberliner]

CAIRO: Preliminary results showed Islamists taking the lead in the first phase of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, with fierce competition between two main coalitions and with the liberal Egyptian Bloc.

The Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) postponed announcing results of the first round of People’s Assembly elections to Thursday night instead of Wednesday as planned.

While the SEC is yet to finalize vote counting in some areas, initial indications show that Islamist parties won the majority of seats around the nine governorates of the first phase.

As expected, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) seems to be winning big in the nine governorates, followed by the Salafi Al-Nour Party in the Delta governorates, and the secular Egyptian Bloc in Upper Egypt.

http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt-elections-2011/islamist-parties-take-the-lead-in-preliminary-election-results.html

Early results show Islamists dominating Egypt's next parliament

The preliminary results from the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary have realised the rife speculation that political parties from the Islamist current would comprise the vast majority of the next parliament.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), has demonstrated supremacy with the voters in the nine governorates that voted this week. They were followed by the Salafist Al-Nour Party, which is running, under the Islamist Alliance for Egypt bloc, on the same electoral lists as Al-Asalaa Party and Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiyya’s the Building and Development Party. Meanwhile, the liberal Egyptian Bloc seems to be trailing in third.

The Islamists’ initial electoral success has been achieved in cities where liberal political forces have their highest density, such as Cairo and Alexandria. This indicates the coming rounds of the elections could well see the Islamists take a stranglehold on parliament.

“I expect Islamists to win at least 65 per cent of seats in the first round,” said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic movements and head of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/28181/Egypt/Politics-/Early-results-show-Islamists-dominating-Egypts-nex.aspx

[shira]

1. One cycle of elections = democracy. Islamist rule will dominate Egypt for decades to come.

The short lived Arab Spring becomes a long term Islamist Winter.

Very bad news.