Egypt ruling party wins 69 of 88 parliament seats

CAIRO, June 13 (Reuters) Egypt's ruling party won 69 out of 88 seats outright in Monday's parliamentary election while the opposition Muslim Brotherhood got none, a government statement said today.

The Brotherhood, rights groups and journalists reported many voting irregularities, including multiple voting and ballot stuffing. In some places where the Islamists hold a strong popular base, police denied voters access to polling stations.

The elections, for half of the elected seats in the Shoura Council, were a test case for constitutional and legislative changes banning religious slogans and symbols as Egypt prepares for a transition of power from ageing President Hosni Mubarak.

Another 17 seats in the council, the upper house of parliament, will be decided in a runoff election on June 18 in districts where no candidate won more than 50 per cent of the seats, the election commission said.

Only two candidates from outside the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), one from the leftist Tagammu party and an independent, won seats outright.

The government said turnout in the election was 31 per cent.

The independent monitoring group Shayfeencom, whose name means ''We are Watching You'', has estimated turnout at 3 per cent and said fraud was widespread.

The powerful Muslim Brotherhood, which fielded 19 candidates, did not win any seats nor did any of its candidates win the right to contend next week's runoff, according to a statement from the election commission.

All those who won the right to compete in next week's runoff were either members of the ruling party or NDP supporters not on the party's official ticket, parliamentary sources said.

The Brotherhood, the strongest opposition group, had said it did not expect to win any seats in the election due to widespread abuses by police, civil servants and members of the ruling party.

In an election for the lower house in 2005, the Brotherhood won nearly a fifth of seats, alarming the government which began a fresh crackdown on the Islamist movement late last year.

Before the Shoura Council vote, police detained more than 700 Brotherhood members and activists.

A spokesman for Egypt's election commission has said nothing happened during the vote to ''disturb the serenity'' of the election.

REUTERS CS BST2228