(29 Nov 1995) English/Nat
Egyptians are voting in parliamentary elections viewed as a test of support for President Hosni Mubarak.
Ahead of Wednesday's voting, the government arrested dozens of Muslim fundamentalists in a crackdown on the main opposition group.
The election banners fluttered across Cairo's teeming streets Wednesday, marking the day of the elections.
Some 3-thousand-980 candidates are competing for seats in the Legislative house of Parliament the Peoples' Assembly, the vast majority as independents.
The polling was overshadowed by the government's campaign of arrests against its chief challenger, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The government says some 21 (m) million of Egypt's 58 (m) million people are eligible to vote.
The parliament election should have been largely routine, but President Hosni Mubarak's government has turned it into an all-out offensive to keep the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood at bay.
Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party wants to maintain at least a two-thirds grip in the People's Assembly.
The Brotherhood is the only opposition that could pose any competition, they might have threatened the margin of one-third, so the government has chosen to solve this problem by police measures.
Many of the group's leaders have been hauled before military courts and accused of collaborating with the extremists.
Campaign rallies were broken up. And the Brotherhood says that since Sunday police have detained scores of people who were to serve as its candidates' poll watchers.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
We hope it will be a fair free election, but what has happened from the beginning of this year until now doesn't let us trust this process.
SUPER CAPTION: Maamoun El Hodaiby, Brotherhood spokesman
Most opposition parties boycotted the last election in 1990. But in 1987 balloting, the opposition - with the Brotherhood running in tandem with the Liberal Party - took about a quarter of the assembly seats.
How these election will turn out will be determined on the first of December when the final results are expected.
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