Egypt Latest: The Second Round of Parliamentary Elections

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".

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Egypt Elections Video: Saturday's Protest Against the Ruling Party's Vote-Rigging

We will be keeping an eye on the second round of Egypt's disputed elections for the Parliament.

On Saturday, activists held a protest in front of Cairo's Press Syndicate, accusing the ruling National Democratic Party of rigging the votes during Sunday's first round.

Egypt Elections Analysis: "The Door for a Challenge to Mubarak is Closed" (Iskander)

The door for a challenger in 2011 to President Hosni Mubarak or, if he declines to run, his son Gamal now seems closed. The failure of the opposition parties to win seats and the withdrawal of al-Wafd from this Sunday’s second round of elections [Editor's Note: The Muslim Brotherhood has also pulled out], comes on top of only eight victories for opposition and independent candidate in the first round.

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Egypt Latest: "Elections Marred by Rigging & Violence"

UPDATE 1450 GMT: Jack Shenker in The Guardian of London: "[This election] was about sending a message that – whichever elements from within the existing autocracy triumph in the internecine battles to come – the transition from one pharaoh to another will take place wholly within that autocracy, with all other voices excluded."

UPDATE 1445 GMT: The Wafd Party has officially pulled out of the second round of voting.

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Egypt Latest: The Ruling Party Wipes Out the Opposition

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.

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Egypt LiveBlog: The Latest on the Parliament 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.

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Egypt Latest: Today's Parliamentary Elections

We have now moved the LiveBlog to the top of the page, continuing our coverage of the aftermath of the election.

Egypt Special: On the Eve of a Pretend Election?

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.

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Egypt Special: What is the Significance of the Latest Christian Protests? (Iskander)

Fresh protests by Egypt’s largest Christian community the Copts indicate a new phase in communal tensions that have risen steadily throughout 2010. The latest demonstrations, which have so far led to one dead and many injured, began on 24 November in the Giza area of Cairo when permission to construct a church was refused.

Church building has remained a possible flashpoint between 1981 and last week, but Coptic reactions had been muted as Pope Shenouda pursued a pragmatic policy of cooperation with the State. Now a changed environment, beyond anger at inequalities over places of worship, is emerging: this is a political rivalry which is damaging the Church-State relationship and perhaps laying the ground for further communal violence.

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