CAIRO: Egypt awaited the final results on Tuesday of a parliamentary election that is set to deliver sweeping gains for President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party and all but shut out the Islamic opposition.
Rights groups say the vote was marked by widespread violence and fraud, and the White House expressed disappointment at the way the election was conducted, calling reports of numerous irregularities “worrying.”
According to government daily Al-Ahram, the National Democratic Party (NDP) won more than 170 of 508 seats in the first round on Sunday while the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main opposition party, failed to win a single seat outright.
The Muslim Brotherhood threatened to pull out of an election they have already denounced as “rigged and invalid.”
"We are studying whether or not to continue" participating, senior Brotherhood member Mohammed Mursi told a news conference in Cairo ahead of next Sunday's runoff.
Al-Ahram and Al-Masri Al-Yom newspapers said Egypt's secular opposition only won six seats, three of which went to the liberal Wafd party.
Wafd urged the election commission to delay the announcement of results until it has investigated voting complaints,charging that the government had failed to respect “the presidential promise to guarantee transparent elections.”
Official results will be announced at 1800 GMT on Tuesday, according to the electoral commission.
“An assembly without opposition,” ran the headline of the independent daily Al-Shuruk, adding that “the NDP will essentially be competing against itself” in next Sunday's voting.
Egyptians voted last Sunday for the 508 elected seats in the lower house, or People's Assembly, many of which were contested by rival candidates of Mubarak's NDP.
Egyptian monitoring groups reported deadly violence, vote rigging and the intimidation of opposition candidates across the country on election day.
In Washington, White House national security spokesman Mike Hammer said “the United States is disappointed with the conduct during and leading up to Egypt's November 28 legislative elections.”
”The numerous reported irregularities at the polls, the lack of international monitors and the many problems encountered by domestic monitors, and the restrictions on the basic freedoms of association, speech and press in the run-up to the elections are worrying,” he added.
Egypt is key regional ally of the United States and and one of the top beneficiaries of US foreign aid.
Egypt's information minister Anas al-Feki insisted the vote was marked by a “high degree of transparency,” saying the “limited” incidents had “not affected the general conduct and integrity of the election.”
But the ministry also reported at least three people killed by gunfire in clashes between supporters of rival candidates.