Economic worries keep Egyptian voters off poll stations

Cairo: Egyptians largely avoided on Tuesday's local council elections after candidates from the largest opposition group were prevented from running.

Voting was actually cancelled in a northern city where riots over high food prices raged for the past two days, killing one person.

The state-run daily Al Gomhuria announced in the morning before polls even opened that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) had taken 70 per cent of the 52,000 seats because they were uncontested.

"The bread is getting more expensive, the people are worried about that and most don't care about politics," said Medhat Abdul Nasser, a 20-year-old student, who walked by a polling station without pausing in the working class neighbourhood of Manial.

"Maybe there will be change, maybe there won't be, but I don't think my vote would make any difference," Dr. Ahmad Khalil, an emergency room physician, said at a convenience store near his hospital.

"The ruling party will take all the seats as usual, so why bother to vote?" The elections are taking place against a backdrop of anger in the country over rising food prices, which have prompted widespread strikes and demonstrations.

Two days of violent clashes in the northern industrial city of Mahalla Al Kobra turned deadly when a young protester died of his wounds on Tuesday morning, according to police.

Voting in the tense city was cancelled and instead 15 of the 56 local council seats were handed out to opposition parties, according to an official government document viewed by The Associated Press.