Brotherhood poll success ups pressure on Cairo

ft.com: The second round of Egypt's legislative elections has consolidated the banned Muslim Brotherhood as the country's main opposition force, a trend likely to raise the pressure for some form of legal recognition.

Since it was founded in the 1920s the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main Islamist movement, has been subject to often brutal crackdowns. Several hundred of its activists were detained ahead of voting on Sunday in the Nile Delta and parts of Upper Egypt, which degenerated in some places into riots.

But despite what independent monitors saw as efforts by the ruling National Democratic party to thwart them with vote-buying, intimidation and fraud, the Brotherhood are still on course to win their largest share of parliament.

According to results for the second stage, Brotherhood candidates - running as nominally independent because the group is officially banned - won 13 seats outright, adding to the 34 they won in first round polling last week. A further 41 Brotherhood members did well enough to face run-offs on Saturday. Read more