US Defense Secretary Robert Gates urges Egypt to take time over elections

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged Egypt's interim leaders to take time over new elections, pointing out that the country's various political groups, who helped oust president Hosni Mubarak, need time to organise themselves into political parties.

During a two day visit to Cairo, Gates said he wanted to reassure Egypt of Washington's commitment to help the country transition into a democracy. The US is somewhat concerned that early elections will mostly benefit the country's main opposition party, the staunchly Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood (MB).

After talks with Egypt's interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf, Gates said: "I'm absolutely not going to second-guess either the Supreme Council or the interim government…I would simply say that we believe it is important to allow those new elements that have become active in Egyptian politics, some of them for the first time, to have the time to develop political parties and to develop organisation and structure," in order to “play the same kind of leading role in Egypt in the future that they played in bringing about this change in the first place."

Gates also met with Egypt's Military Leader Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, to whom he spoke repeatedly during the protests, and commended the country's military for protecting the Egyptian people. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Gates said: "He told me the Army would protect the people…And in everything that ensued, he and the Army kept their word."

Sources: WSJ, Reuters, AP, CNN International

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

Egypt votes in second round of election amid allegations of fraud

Egypt has voted in a second round of parliamentary elections, a week after the first round was marred by violence and allegations of fraud. President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won almost all the seats in the first round, following withdrawal from the poll by the two main opposition groups.

The NDP has been accused of fixing the vote, but the party insists that the ballot was fair. The top two candidates in seats where no-one polled more than 50 per cent of the vote are supposed to contest the run-off.

But the NDP, which won 209 of the 222 seats decided in the first round, is expected to win all but a handful of the 287 seats that were up for grabs on Sunday.

The first round of voting attracted criticism from rights groups and the US, after videos of confrontations between the government and the opposition and pictures of ballot boxes being stuffed and destroyed began to circulate on the internet.

Experts wonder whether the result has any credibility as it looks like the outcome might leave Egypt a one-party state. The main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), pulled out of the second round as it failed to secure a single seat in the first round. The other opposition group, the liberal Wafd party, followed in MB's footsteps after winning just two seats.

The result of the parliamentary elections will no doubt have an affect on the presidential poll next year, but it is yet unclear whether President Mubarak will stand for re-election or look for a successor.

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.