Yesterday, even as President Hosni Mubarak tried to settle any tensions over this month's Parliamentary elections, in which his ruling National Democratic Party won more than 90% of the seats, there were further signs of troubled political waters.
Claimed footage of vote-rigging arrangements by supporters of ruling National Democratic Party in Alexandria:
Amira Howeidy of Ahram Online summarises the state of the new Egyptian Parliament after yesterday's second-round voting:
In the parliamentary election’s second round, preliminary results indicate that the NDP [ruling National Democratic Party] has swept 96 percent of the available seats.
1940 GMT: Election monitors have said turnout was as low as 5% in some districts. The head of the High Elections Commission operations room, Ahmed Shawqi, said just before polls closed that the turnout was “very low”, blaming it on the withdrawal of the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd Party from the run-offs.
1655 GMT. Residents of Daqahliya's Sandeela district have stormed a local polling station to protest alleged vote-rigging in favor of the two National Democratic Party candidates Noshi al-Basandeeli.
The crowd smashed 17 ballot boxes, tearing up votes and throwing them into the street.
Voting at the polling station was suspended.
1600 GMT: Statement of the Day. Al Jazeera's Ayman Moyheldin reports this comment from the ruling NDP's Atef Masoud: the elections were the will of "the Egyptian people [who] don't want opposition in Parliament".
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 8:16 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
For earlier news, see the Sunday-Monday and Tuesday updates:
UPDATE 1825 GMT: Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif gives the reassuring statement of the day: the fact that all ministers won their seats proves the government is popular.
UPDATE 1750 GMT: The Muslim Brotherhood have also withdrawn from the second round of the elections.
MONDAY, 28 NOVEMBER
2020 GMT: An EA correspondent checks in....
The High Elections Commission, claiming that complaints are very minor, says the ruling National Democratic Party has won 125 of the 508 seats so far. The Muslim Brotherhood has won 0.
Over coming days, 185 seats will have run-offs.
MP Abdel Rahim al-Ghoul of Nagga Hamadi in the province of Qena, accused of involvement in the murder of seven Coptic Christians in January 2010, is in a run-off.
Parliamentary correspondent Mahmoud Nafadi is noting continuing changes in the recorded votes, indicating rigging.
Our EA correspondent also notes the assertions of human rights groups in our 1925 GMT entry. She adds that the head of the Tagammu Party has added his voice to charges that representatives and voters were barred from polling stations.We have now moved the LiveBlog to the top of the page, continuing our coverage of the aftermath of the election.
Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 6:55 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
On Sunday, Egyptian voters will nominally go to the polls to decide who should lead them in Parliament. In reality, the arrangements are in place for Hosni Mubarak to claim a sixth term in next year's Presidential election, beginning his fourth decade in charge.
Dina Samir writes for EA:
From the ringtones on the mobile phones of Cairo's underground riders --- chiming out the Islamic call to prayer or Christian worship songs --- to religious products such as Islamic books to the preaching of a Muslim lady in the women-only carriage, a stranger can hear and feel religion in the air. Just one ride gives you Egyptians’ “religious mania,” a term used by various intellectuals to refer to an obsession among many Christians and Muslims in Egypt.
But why is religion all around? Professor Madgy Guirguis offers a challenging conclusion, “Since they cannot speak loud about political activism, corruption, inheritance of power, contemplating religion and football are the safe choices left for Egyptians.”
Nobel Prize winner and reformist leader Mohamed ElBaradei's calls for boycotting parliamentary elections received a major blow Saturday when the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most important opposition party,and announced that it would compete in the November poll.
The Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, told a news conference Saturday that 98% of the group's Politburo members voted to take part in elections many see as tipped in favor of the ruling National Democratic Party. The decision was another indication of the divisions and squabbles among opposition groups that have been hampered for years by conflicting agendas.
