The liberal Wafd party and Egypt’s biggest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Wednesday they were quitting the parliament race before run-offs scheduled for Dec. 5.

The two parties, which lost heavily in Sunday’s vote, have said the poll was discredited by vote manipulation, thuggery and other tricks.

The United States, Egypt’s ally and a major aid donor, criticized the poll’s conduct. Independent Egyptian monitors cited widespread abuse. Officials said voting was fair.

Wafd, which controlled 12 seats in the last parliament, won just two in the first round vote on Nov. 28 and had been set to contest nine seats in run-offs before it withdrew.

“We are not participating in the run-off and the two candidates that have won will have to leave the party and become independent if they wish to continue in the parliament,” Wafik El-Ghetany, who heads Wafd’s election operation, said.

Reflecting divisions in the Wafd party, a group of about 40 members gathered to oppose the boycott outside the party office where Wafd leaders were explaining their reason for quitting. “No to boycotting the vote. We will continue,” they chanted.

The Brotherhood previously had 88 seats in parliament, equivalent to a fifth, but won none in Sunday’s first round. It had 26 candidates in run-offs but will not contest them.

The group runs candidates as independents because of a constitutional ban on the formation of religious parties.

The ruling party has dismissed criticism of the poll and said the Brotherhood had lost the confidence of voters. “This is the reality of elections,” Safwat Sherif, the party’s secretary-general, told a news conference late on Wednesday.

The new parliament will have 518 seats, with 508 elected and 10 more appointed by the president. The outgoing assembly had 454 seats. Extra seats reserved for women were added this time.