The Egyptian largest opposition group Muslim Brotherhood Sunday protested over "corruption and irregularities" ahead of Tuesday's elections for parliament's upper house, according to AFP
"When we decided to field candidates in this election, we thought the regime would keep some of its promises and was sincere," the group's supreme guide Mohammed Badie told reporters, in reference to government vows of holding free and fair elections.
"Unfortunately, it has disappointed the people and has returned to its original path of violating the constitution and the law, and the rights of candidates and voters," he said.
Badie condemned the "corruption and irregularities," in the run-up to the election, saying security officials had "removed posters of our candidates and chased them and their supporters to prevent them from campaigning and meeting their constituents."
"It has reached the stage of besieging the homes of the candidates," he said.
The Brotherhood, which is officially banned, will be fielding around a dozen candidates as independents in the mid-term election for the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's bicameral legislature which is dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP).
The Shura, a primarily advisory body, is made up of 264 members of whom 176 are directly elected and 88 are appointed by the president. Membership is on a rotating basis, with one third of the council renewed every three years.
The vote is unlikely to reshape the political landscape, with analysts expecting a low voter turnout.
Some 446 candidates are to run for 74 seats in 55 electoral constituencies, Intissar Nesmi, head of the High Elections Commission told reporters. Fourteen seats are not being contested.
The house is already dominated by the ruling NDP, with opposition groups standing little chance of gaining a significant number of seats.
"The Shura elections are a given for the NDP," Amr Choubaki, a political analyst with the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies told AFP. "Most candidates are either NDP members, or independents affiliated with the NDP," he said.
Amid a government crackdown on the group and widespread voter apathy, the Brotherhood, which has never been represented in the Shura Council, is unlikely to garner any seats.
"The opposition has little opportunity to change the balance of the house and people are not interested in this election. Voters will be more involved in the legislative election," slated for later this year, Choubaki said.
"The Brotherhood's chances are next to zero," he said.
The run-up to the election saw a crackdown on the Brotherhood, who have long accused the regime of seeking to keep them out of political life after their surprise gains in a 2005 poll when it won a fifth of seats in parliament.
Dozens of members and supporters have been arrested in recent weeks, a security official told AFP.
The election comes at a time of anxiety over who will succeed the 82-year-old Mubarak.
The veteran leader, who underwent surgery in March, has not said whether he plans to run in next year's presidential election. But senior party members have said publicly that the NDP wants him to contest a fifth six-year term.
