As results come in for Egypt’s People’s Assembly elections — surprise, a victory for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) — they enjoy little credibility either inside or outside the country due to the total lack of transparency and the widespread irregularities and violence that characterized the voting and counting processes. In fact, the main opposition groups (the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd) have announced they will boycott the runoff round to protest massive irregularities.

Extensive restrictions on media coverage and civil society monitoring ensured there would be little transparency on election day. Egyptian authorities prevented live satellite broadcasts from the country and canceled planned television programs by major media outlets, including the BBC.

After rebuffing requests from international organizations to observe the elections by citing an extensive domestic monitoring effort, Egyptian authorities impeded the work of local civil society monitors. Only a small percentage were granted official credentials; of these, most were either denied entry to polling and counting stations or evicted after they entered.

After its accusations of government fraud and vote buying during Sunday's first round of the parliamentary elections, Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has decided not to take part in this weekend's runoff poll.

The decision comes one day after the Higher Elections Committee announced the first round's official results in which the Islamist group failed to win a single seat, but still had 27 candidates to compete in the runoff.

"The violations, terror and hooliganism we were subjected to at the hands of security forces and NDP [National Democratic Party] thugs before and during elections, all of which were reported by civil and media organizations, as well as the forged results, made us reconsider taking part in the runoff," Mohamed Badee, the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, said in a statement on Wednesday.

A number of videos shot by citizens reporting violations in the Egyptian parliamentary electoral process have swept social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

With heavy restrictions imposed on both print and broadcast media during Sunday's elections, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians resorted to both following and pointing out violations via websites.

The son of an independent candidate was allegedly stabbed to death by two men in pre-election violence. Many voters and observers spoke of intimidation and bullying from what they called "thugs and supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party's candidates."

A number of polling stations in and outside Cairo allegedly were closed ahead of schedule by security officers, leaving hundreds of angry voters protesting outside the premises.

Its members handcuffed and taken to prison cells, the Muslim Brotherhood is facing a sweeping police crackdown that appears certain to weaken the political standing of the nation's largest opposition group in Sunday's parliamentary elections.

More than 1,200 Brotherhood members and sympathizers, including eight candidates for parliament, have been arrested in recent weeks, the organization claims. Most were reportedly detained in the governorate of Sharkeya in the Nile Delta, an Islamist stronghold characterized by poverty and frequent tensions.

"The regime is sending a message that there will be no elections," Saad Katatni, a leading Brotherhood lawmaker, said in a press conference Monday condemning government attacks on opposition voices.

Following is an analysis from the Carnegie Endowment:  As Egypt's Nov. 28 parliamentary vote approaches, heated debates have highlighted pitfalls of the election process.

Obvious challenges to free and fair elections include the regime’s restriction on competition between political parties -- sanctioned by the country’s constitutional and legal electoral framework -- and the ruling party’s tight grip on state institutions and close bond with the president.

Other problems include the numerous obstacles to security and organization facing opposition parties and movements as they try to field candidates and communicate with citizens, as well as the limited local oversight of elections and the absence of international monitoring.

But these represent only a sliver of the election difficulties Egypt faces. Although the absence of electoral fairness and transparency perpetuated by the elite is no doubt important, other, perhaps deeper, shortcomings have surfaced in the current campaign.

Many Egyptian reformists were disappointed when the Muslim Brotherhood rejected calls to boycott the country's upcoming Nov. 28 parliamentary elections. 

The Muslim Brotherhood remains the country's largest opposition bloc. As part of a series of video interviews collected by the Carnegie Middle East Center ahead of this month's much-anticipated elections, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Essam Arian explains his movement's strategy in the 2010 People's Assembly elections and the 2011 presidential race.

The Brotherhood ran 12 candidates in the June 1, 2010 Shura Council elections. But none won a seat. 

-- Carnegie Middle East Center

Rising tension between Egypt’s government and the two biggest opposition groups has resulted in one announcing that it might boycott next month's parliamentary elections and the other condemning the arrest of dozens of its members.

The boycott threat, issued by Al Wafd's spokesman this week, came after state television blocked the broadcasting of the party’s advertisements. “Al Wafd would boycott the elections if the government's obstinacy towards the party and the refusal of its right to air its political advertisements continues,” spokesman Mohamed Sherdi said at a news conference.

The head of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, Osama El Sheikh, earlier said that state television doesn’t restrict political advertisements as long as they are approved by the electoral committee.
Al Wafd's boycott threats coincide with complaints made by Egypt's biggest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose top officials accuse the government of suppressing their group through mass arrests ahead of the elections.

A security official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed that about 50 Brotherhood members were arrested in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria this week. They were putting up posters promoting their group's candidates that “bore religious slogans which violate electoral laws,” the official said.

Nobel Prize winner and reformist leader Mohamed ElBaradei's calls for boycotting parliamentary elections received a major blow Saturday when the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most important opposition party, announced that it would compete in the November poll.

The Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, told a news conference Saturday that 98% of the group's Politburo members voted to take part in elections many see as tipped in favor of the ruling National Democratic Party. The decision was another indication of the divisions and squabbles among opposition groups that have been hampered for years by conflicting agendas.

"The Brotherhood will field candidates for third of the People's Assembly's seats. A list of its candidates' names will be released in few weeks' time," Badie said. Despite being politically banned, the Brotherhood, whose members run as independents, is the biggest opposition bloc in parliament with 88 out of 454 seats.

The Brotherhood's decision comes after democracy campaigner ElBaradei called on all opposition forces to snub the elections, saying that taking part will give the ruling regime a legitimacy it doesn't deserve. The former director of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog agency said the elections will be rigged, and that anyone competing in November will be acting against the Egyptian people's will.

Will a television miniseries about the history of Egypt's biggest political opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, undermine or promote the group's image in the eyes of millions of viewers in the Arab world?

Named "Al Gama'a" or "The Group" and written by prominent scriptwriter Wahid Hamed, the prime-time serial has been airing every night on state-owned and private satellite television channels throughout the holy month of Ramadan, when television viewing and advertisement rates reach their annual peak.

"Al Gama'a" traces the movement from its founding by spiritual leader Hassan Banna in 1928 as an anti-British and anti-colonialist political group through the various phases it has gone through to become a powerful political, social and religious phenomenon, influencing people in various countries across the Middle East.

The number of Egyptians who have signed a petition for political reform proposed by potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei has doubled over the last two weeks after the Muslim Brotherhood posted the document on one of its affiliate websites.

Since launching tawkatonline.com on July 7, nearly 70,000 followers of Egypt's largest opposition group signed the petition, taking the total to 145,000 signatures since the petition was first proposed by ElBaradei's National Front for Change in April.

"Signatures on petition for change increasing steadily. There's no going back. Youth are Egypt's hope for a better future," Elbaradei, the former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, said on his Twitter account.

Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party has won a majority of seats in the nation's upper house of Parliament, the Shura Council, in midterm elections held on Tuesday, the head of the Higher Electoral Committee announced at a news conference on Thursday.

The NDP secured 60 out of the 74 council seats. Four candidates from opposition parties El Ghad, El Geel, Al Tagamuu and Al Nassery managed to outmuscle the NDP nominees and secure the only opposition victories.

The biggest loser  was Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose 15 nominees failed to win a single seat despite the fact that their movement forms the largest opposition bloc in Egypt's more influential People's Assembly, with 88 seats.

An upcoming television series about the early days of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition and religious movement, is angering many group members, including the son of founder Hassan al-Banna.

The series called "Al Gama'a" ("The Group") is written by prominent scriptwriter Waheed Hamed and directed by Mohamed Yassin. It has been in production for nearly two years and is expected to be broadcast by Egyptian public television during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan in August.

Hamed has previously revealed that his script will focus on the first and most influential 20 years in the life of the Brotherhood as well as the biography of its founder. Nonetheless, Brotherhood leaders, who worry the series will be government propaganda against them, criticized Hamed for not allowing the group to review a copy of the script and to double-check historical facts.

"The main problem is Hamed's unwillingness to consult any of the group's leaders, who have been members long enough to know our history, while he was writing the script," Mohamed Habib, former Brotherhood deputy leader, has said.