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Islamic Party Main Opposition to Mubarak

Still-partial results from Egypt show that President Hosni Mubarak`s National Democratic Party scooped up 314 seats in the 454-seat assembly, 90 fewer than in elections five years ago but still more than the two-thirds majority needed to pass constitutional changes. In the end, the benefits were harvested by the well-organized and still officially banned Muslim Brotherhood, which has long espoused the preeminence of Islamic law in public life and whose history is linked with violent movements across the Middle East.

The contrast underscored a stunning shift in Egyptian politics. The Tomorrow Party and other legal, secular opposition groups were all but wiped out in the election -- together, they won no more than 10 seats. Candidates running as independents but representing the Brotherhood, which is formally banned from politics, won 88 seats and became the leading voice of dissent against President Hosni Mubarak`s quarter-century rule.

"Most of the most democratic forces lost with only a handful of votes. They became yesterday`s people. They fought to open the system, but it was the Muslim Brotherhood that benefited," said Mohammed Sayed Said, an analyst at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.