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Islamist parties sweep Egyptian polls

January 21, 2012 23:39 IST

Egyptian Islamist parties have swept the parliamentary polls with a Muslim Brotherhood linked political group alone notching 235 seats in the 498 member House, the first polls since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, nearly a year ago.

The Freedom and Justice Party, which represents the Brotherhood won 47 per cent seats in the new People's Assembly, Abdel Moez Ibrahim, the head of election commission, said on Saturday, while a hardline Islamist Salafi al-Nour party won 24 per cent, under Egypt's complex electoral system.

Egyptians voted in three phases over a six-week period to elect the 498 member parliament. Ten further members are appointed by the ruling military.

The overall results mean that Islamist parties control around two-thirds of the seats in the assembly, though the final share out of seats is not yet known, the BBC reported.

The Freedom and Justice Party, which represents Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, has won 47 per cent of all seats in the country's election for the lower house of parliament, the election commission has said.

The party secured 127 seats on party lists, while its candidates won another 108 in first-past-the-post constituency votes, where votes were cast for individual candidates.

The liberal Al Wafd party won about seven per cent of the seats, according to the latest results. The remaining 22 per cent of seats were split amongst smaller political parties.

The voter turnout was 54 per cent in the polls.

The FJP has named Saad Al Katatni, a leading Muslim Brotherhood official who has previously sat in parliament as an independent, as speaker of the assembly, the Al Jazeera reported.

The landmark elections for the lower house of parliament, were held in three stages. The polls were the first since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the former president, who was overthrown by a popular uprising in January last year.

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