Election-day violence fuels anger in Egypt

By Michael Slackman The New York Times - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune: "If parliamentary elections were supposed to be an exercise in democracy, as President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had promised, they instead served as a reminder to many here of the unyielding, unchecked power of the state.

After the banned Muslim Brotherhood began whittling away at the ruling party's monopoly on power, the riot police, plainclothes police officers and armed civilians working for the police began blocking voting stations, preventing supporters of the Brotherhood from casting their votes.

The results of the election showed that the Brotherhood had increased its representation in Parliament to 88 members from 15, while the ruling National Democratic Party retained the vast majority of the 454 seats."