Voting ‘unaffected by minor scuffles

’ By The Egyptian Gazette Online Sunday, November 28, 2010 07:09:17 PM CAIRO - The Ministry of Interior Sunday said that die-hard competition among rival candidates for the parliamentary polls led to minor scuffles and brawls that occurred during the voting process nationwide.
voter, right, gestures to one of a number of unidentified men, left, said by voters to be hired unofficial security personnel belonging to the ruling party, stationed inside a polling station in the Shubra al-Khama neighborhood of Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, N
However, the police immediately put such incidents under control and the voting process went ahead uninterrupted, the Ministry's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Tareq Attiya said in a statement. "These minor incidents did not have any impact on the electoral process," Attiya added. Meanwhile, Ismail Khaiyrat, the chairman of the State Information Service (SIS), said that he had ordered all obstacles impeding the work of foreign correspondents covering Sunday's one-day elections for the People's Assembly be removed. "The SIS's Foreign Correspondents Centre, in collaboration with the Supreme Election Commission, has removed any obstacle hindering the foreign media representative from doing their assignments after receiving some complaints form non-Egyptian journalists," Khaiyrat added. However, he urged foreign correspondents and TV reporters to be fair, accurate and objective in their coverage of the Egyptian elections and refrain from exaggeration.