Islamists sweep early results in Egypt election

In northern Port Said,the moderate Islamist alliance led by the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood triumphed with 32.5 per cent of votes for parties,while the hardline Al-Nur party gained 20.7 per cent,the Al-Ahram daily said.

The liberal Wafd party won 14 per cent,while another Islamist party,Al-Wassat which advocates a strict interpretation of Islamic law,recorded 12.9 per cent,according to the state-run newspaper.

In the southern Red Sea district,the Brotherhood’s alliance won 30 per cent,while secular coalition the Egyptian Bloc came in second with 15 per cent,it said.

Full results after the first voting — which saw 62 per cent turnout — were initially meant to have been published on Wednesday but have been delayed several times.

There appeared few bright spots for the liberal secular movement which played a key role in the overthrow of the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak in February after an 18-day uprising.

It has since splintered and been outgunned by the more organised Brotherhood,well known to Egyptians because of its decades of opposition to the Mubarak regime and its extensive charitable and social work.

Mohammed Abdel Ghani,a liberal candidate,told the independent Al-Shorouq newspaper that his movement needed to counter Islamist propaganda that “non-Islamist candidates were infidels.”

In Cairo,the rising star of the movement,Amr Hemzawi,won a seat in the upmarket Heliopolis district,but elsewhere leading figures of the revolution were either struggling or had been beaten.

In Tahrir Square,the epicentre of protests against Mubarak,demonstrators returned last week to protest against the military rulers who took over when the strongman quit,but their numbers had dwindled to a few hundred on Saturday.

“Everyone that we had faith in has betrayed us,” 25-year-old protester Mohammed El-Assas said.