Islamists, And Even More Radical Islamists, Dominate In Egyptian Elections

The Telegraph reports:

Both the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, and its rivals agreed that it was leading the count in the first tranche of nine out of Egypt's 27 governorates, including its two most important cities, Cairo and Alexandria.

More unexpected was the apparent success of the FJP's radical rival, Nour, which represents a movement of Salafis inspired by the puritanical political Islam of Saudi Arabia.

Its lack of previous involvement in political campaigning had been viewed as a handicap. But it may have won as much as ten per cent of the vote, according to some estimates, challenging the main liberal coalition for second place.

The result suggests the various Islamist parties could form an overall majority in the parliament.

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