Cairo: Heavyweights in President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party on Monday were declared winners in the legislative elections, the most acrimonious in the nation's parliamentary history.
Ministers of oil, finance, irrigation, social solidarity, international co-operation, parliamentary affairs, local development and military production defeated their rivals from opposition parties, the banned Muslim Brotherhood and independents.
Landslide victory
The ruling party, which has been in power for more than three decades, is expected to score a landslide victory when the final results are announced on Wednesday.
Tarek Talaat Mustafa, a businessman belonging to the ruling party and a brother of Hesham who was found guilty in the murder of Lebanese singer Suzan Tamim, won in Alexandria.
Fat'hi Sorour, the veteran speaker of the outgoing parliament, was also declared winner in Syeda Zainab in Islamic Cairo, a seat he has been keeping for almost two decades. Zakaria Azami, the chief of the presidential staff, also won. Both politicians are stalwart members of Mubarak's party.
No candidate from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest-yet-banned opposition force, has emerged winner, after more than 50 per cent of the votes were counted.
The group, which fielded 130 candidates as independents in Sunday's elections, had garnered a fifth of the parliament's seats in the 2005 elections.
Seven contenders from Al Wafd, Egypt's oldest liberal party, were officially declared winners.
Opposition and local monitors have reported irregularities in the election, which left seven dead, two of them of health problems, according to Egyptian officials.
