Egypt's Brotherhood wins 47% of parliament seats
AFP Sat, 21/01/2012 - 15:22
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/612026

The Muslim Brotherhood's party has won 47.18 percent of seats in the
Egyptian parliament, the electoral commission announced on Saturday as it
gave the final results from marathon polls.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won 235 seats in the new People's
Assembly, or 47.18 percent, committee head Abdel Moez Ibrahim said.

The ultra-conservative Salafi-oriented Nour Party is in second place with
121 seats or nearly 25 percent, while the liberal Wafd Party follows with
nearly nine percent.

The FJP secured 127 seats on party lists and its candidates won another 108,
according to the results announced on Saturday.

The landmark election was the first since the overthrow of veteran president
Hosni Mubarak in February last year. It was launched in November and carried
out in three stages

The People's Assembly, or lower house of parliament, is made up of 498
elected MPs and 10 appointed by the ruling military.

It will hold its first session on Monday.

Once elections for parliament's upper house, or Shura Council, are concluded
in February, the two chambers are to choose a 100-member panel to draft a
new constitution.

A new president is then to be elected by June under the timetable set by the
military rulers who announced that candidates can register for the
presidency from 15 April.

But there is widespread belief that the SCAF, to which Mubarak handed over
power, will continue to hold on to some sort of power after the transition.

The military has been the backbone of Egyptian politics ever since the fall
of the monarchy in 1952, and every president since has emerged from the top
ranks of the armed forces.

In Egypt's complex electoral system, voters cast ballots for party list
candidates to make up two thirds of parliament, and direct votes for
individual candidates for the remaining third.