CAIRO, 9 December 2005 — Egypt’s ruling party has maintained its grip on power, official election results showed yesterday, after a final day of voting was marred by violent efforts to curb Islamist gains.

Nine people were killed in clashes between police and Islamists during the last round Wednesday of the month-long parliamentary polls, which have drawn US condemnation over electoral abuse.

Results released by the electoral commission showed the National Democratic Party (NDP) of veteran President Hosni Mubarak and affiliated independents won 324 seats over three rounds.

The results give the ruling bloc a two-thirds majority in Parliament and the power to pass constitutional amendments or emergency laws, although its tally falls short of the 404 seats it mustered in the 2000 polls.

The main opposition force, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, won at least 88 seats in the 454-strong People’s Assembly, six times the number of MPs it had in the outgoing chamber.

“We will be an opposition group, a strong opposition group,” Brotherhood spokesman Issam Al-Aryan said.

With seven Brotherhood candidates involved in 12 re-runs, the movement, which has renounced violence after a bloody past, could still edge closer to the 100 mark.

Scores of polling stations were sealed off by police Wednesday, especially in areas where candidates representing the Muslim Brotherhood were contesting the final runoffs, fueling frustration that often spilled over into violence.

According to medical and security sources, nine Egyptians were killed in clashes outside polling stations, mainly between security forces and Islamist supporters.

Several more people were in critical condition.

The Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents, conducted a well-crafted campaign under the slogan “Islam is the solution,” but the scope of its gains surprised observers.

According to unofficial results, the final round saw rare victories for two prominent members of the secular opposition, one from the liberal Wafd and the other from the Nasserist party Karama.

Ghad party leader and presidential runner-up Ayman Nur crashed to a stinging defeat in his own Cairo bastion in the first phase of the polls and was jailed earlier this week even before the end of his forgery trial.