Police open fire on angry crowd in latest Egyptian election violence

At least 10 people were injured Saturday when police fired live ammunition and tear-gas to disperse a crowd of voters who were protesting that security forces had prevented them from casting their ballots in a village near the Mediterranean port of Damietta.

At least 10 people were injured Saturday when police fired live ammunition and tear-gas to disperse a crowd of voters who were protesting that security forces had prevented them from casting their ballots in a village near the Mediterranean port of Damietta.

An official at Al-Zarqa hospital, Damietta, said they had admitted five casualties, three with gunshot wounds and two suffering from breathing problems as a result of tear-gas.

One of the wounded, an 18-year-old boy, was in critical condition with three bullet wounds in his head, the official said.

A doctor at a clinic in Dakahla village said he was treating four people with gunshot wounds.

In a street of the village, people crowded around a 10th victim who lay bleeding from bullet wounds. The villagers said they could not take him to a hospital because police had cordoned off the area.

An ambulance driver outside the village said he could not enter it to recover the casualties because of the police cordon.

The violence erupted when the villagers were denied access to a polling station to cast their votes. Security forces had blocked the roads to the station.

An independent candidate backed by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood enjoys strong support in the village.

The shooting brought work to a standstill in the village, whose main business is woodwork and cabinet-making.

Villagers erected barricades of hay bales on the bloodstained dirt streets and set fire to them to prevent the security forces from advancing.

Saturday's voting in various districts of the Nile Delta, Sinai and southern Egypt were run-off elections between the two candidates who polled the highest votes in the second stage of the legislative polls on October 29.

Candidates received the mandatory 50 per cent of votes in only 18 of the 134 seats contested in the second stage. Half of these winners belonged to the ruling National Democratic Party and half were independents.

Muslim Brotherhood candidates can run only as nominal independents because the group is prohibited. The brotherhood has alleged that its candidates have been harassed throughout the campaign and on previous polling days in the three-part election that began October 18.

Police have admitted detaining brotherhood supporters but said the persons were suspected criminals and the group is banned.

Security forces also opened fire in the run-offs after the first stage of the elections. Police fired on a crowd in Ashmun, about 25 miles (40 Km) northwest of Cairo, killing one person and wounding about a dozen.

The final stage of the elections are scheduled for November 8 and include the capital, Cairo.

The new 454-member legislature is to convene in mid-December. Ten of those seats are filled by presidential appointment; the rest are elected.

The NDP of President Hosni Mubarak controlled 97 per cent of the seats in the outgoing parliament and is expected to dominate the new one.