CAIRO, Dec 1: An Egyptian was shot dead by police on Thursday in the latest round of parliamentary polling, which was marred by violent incidents and attempts by security forces to prevent opposition supporters from voting.

The final phase of the month-long elections started with the Muslim Brotherhood on course to confirm their spectacular gains and reach the 100-seat mark and the ruling party determined to secure its two-thirds majority in parliament.

In the northern Nile Delta town of Baltim, police shot dead a supporter of Nasserist leader Hamdeen Sabahi, medical sources said.

Several others were hospitalized with serious injuries after police used tear-gas, rubber bullets and eventually live rounds against angry stone-throwing Sabahi supporters who had been prevented from casting their ballots.

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were out in force to vote for their 49 candidates competing across the country on Thursday, despite massive security deployments and a three-day campaign of arrests that netted more than 600.

In the Nile Delta village of Bossad, voters of all ages and sexes could be seen climbing over walls with rickety wooden ladders to enter polling stations whose main entrances were blocked off by phalanxes of riot police.

Fires ignited by tear-gas grenades also burned down three houses in the same village, near the city of Mansura.

The same situation prevailed in Al Adwa, a village near the city of Zagazig where the head of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary group, Mohammed Morsi, was contesting a seat. “They don’t want anybody to vote for the Brothers,” 36-year-old Omar Mohammed said.—AFP