Egypt's politics has been polarized by severe competition between the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the strong Muslim Brotherhood after the marathon parliamentary elections which ended on Thursday, analysts said.

"The elections actually yielded no major surprise," said Hassan Nafi'a, an Egyptian political analyst.

"But it did manage to change the political landscape in Egypt, which will be increasingly polarized by the severe competition between the ruling party and its strong Islamist challenger," he added.

The month-long, six-round legislative elections formally ended after final official results showed late Thursday that the NDP has retained its firm grip on power by securing 326 seats while the banned but usually tolerated Muslim Brotherhood achieved a major gain of 88 seats.

Out of the 444 elected seats of the 454-member People's Assembly, 432 seats have been decided in the three-stage elections.

The remaining 12 seats will have to be decided later because courts had canceled election results in six constituencies due to violence or controversy.

The NDP, led by President Hosni Mubarak, won 326 seats, fewer than the 404 seats it has in the outgoing People's Assembly but still more than the two-thirds majority it needs to push for constitutional amendments or pass emergency laws.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood gained 88 seats, compared with the 15 seats it has in the outgoing Peoples' Assembly, thus reaffirming its role as the de facto largest opposition group in the most populous Arab country.

Egypt's secular opposition parties, which have been loosing ground ever since the polls started, won just a handful of seats.

"The results are particularly bitter for the secular parties," said Nafi'a, adding their collective demise in the parliamentary elections made way for a possible showdown between the NDP and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Besides the NDP, Egypt has some 20 other political parties, which range from traditional players in Egypt's politics such as the al-Wafd party to the relatively young Al Ghad (Tomorrow) party with a history of only one year.

Election results showed that all these parties, old or young, shared one characteristic: inability to reach out to the masses.

Unlike other opposition parties, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 and a parent organization of many Islamist movements in the Middle East, has secretly operated a strict and an efficient network across the country.

By running a vast charity network, the group enjoys unequalled grassroot support among common Egyptians.

"The Muslim Brotherhood has long been regarded as the most potent challenger to the ruling party, but it was until after this year's parliamentary elections, the NDP did realize how powerful it could actually be," said Tarek Azzem, a Cairo-based Arab analyst.

"With the traditional opposition parties fading into obscurity, Egypt's politics is set to be dominated by the NDP and the Muslim Brotherhood," he added.

Source: Xinhua