Egypt: Ruling party grabs most parliament seats

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party has won almost all the 16 seats in the runoff elections for Egypt's upper house of parliament, state owned newspapers reported Tuesday. The balloting Monday came a week after the first round was marred by violence and accusations of vote manipulation. Two state-owned dailies, Al-Gomhuria and Al-Ahram, said in their Tuesday evening editions that the ruling National Democratic Party won 14 seats while the remaining two went to independents allied with the NDP. Hence, the ruling party emerged with a total of 84 seats in the upper chamber, or Shura, leaving three seats for allied independents and one for a small leftist opposition party.