Egypt's Brotherhood Party Wins 47% of Parliament Seats

The Muslim Brotherhood's party has won 47.18 percent of seats in the Egyptian parliament, the electoral commission announced on Saturday as it gave the final results from marathon polls.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won 235 seats in the new People's Assembly, or 47.18 percent, committee head Abdel Moez Ibrahim said.

The ultra-conservative Salafist al-Nour party is in second place with 121 seats or nearly 25 percent, while the liberal Wafd Party follows with nearly nine percent.

The FJP secured 127 seats on party lists and its candidates won other 108 in first-past-the-post constituency votes, according to the results announced on Saturday.

The landmark election was the first since the overthrow of veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February last year. It was launched in November and carried out in three stages

The People's Assembly, or lower house of parliament, is made up of 498 elected MPs and 10 appointed by the ruling military.

It will hold its first session on Monday.

Once elections for parliament's upper house, or Shura Council, are concluded in February, the two chambers are to choose a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution.

A new president is then to be elected by June under the timetable set by the military rulers who announced that candidates can register for the presidency from April 15.

But there is widespread belief that the SCAF, to which Mubarak handed over power, will continue to hold on to some sort of power after the transition.

The military has been the backbone of Egyptian politics ever since the fall of the monarchy in 1952, and every president since has emerged from the top ranks of the armed forces.

In Egypt's complex electoral system, voters cast ballots for party list candidates to make up two thirds of parliament, and direct votes for individual candidates for the remaining third.