CAIRO - Many Egyptians were blocked by security forces and ruling party backers from voting in an election on Tuesday, particularly where the opposition Muslim Brotherhood was running, rights groups and the opposition said.The vote for 88 of the 264 seats in the upper house, or Shura Council, is regarded as a litmus test for how much space the authorities will give opposition voices in a parliament vote this year and presidential election in 2011.
The official election body said voting for the council, dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, was smooth and complaints were being dealt with swiftly.
“They are preventing voters from going in to cast their vote, and only those backing the National Democratic Party have access,' said Mohamed Ibrahim, a Brotherhood backer in Helwan near Cairo, where the Brotherhood's Ali Fath el Bab was running.
A Reuters witness in Helwan saw about six uniformed police stopping voters, who said they backed the Brotherhood, from entering a polling station. An election official said the incident had been reported and voters were let in later.
“They have forged it once again,' chanted a gathering of about Brotherhood supporters nearby. Plainclothes agents chased some Brotherhood and others away from the polling station.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, citing its monitors, said voters were barred from entering polling stations in districts of Giza, Sohag, Daqhiliya and Helwan even though their names were listed on the election roll. Maat For Peace, Development and Human Rights said opposition supporters in Sixth of October, Minya and Cairo were barred. Some were stopped by police and others by ruling party backers.
Similar complaints were raised in previous elections, including the 2005 vote for the lower house when the officially banned Brotherhood won an unprecedented fifth of the seats.
The Brotherhood, which is fielding 13 candidates running as independents to skirt the ban, has no seats in the Shura Council.
This was the first Shura vote overseen by the Supreme Electoral Committee, which is appointed by the president. Previously judges oversaw voting and some judges have said their absence from polling stations would allow more abuses.