The Muslim Brotherhood is moving towards a surprise victory in the first round of presidential elections in Egypt.
Egyptian Islamist parties have swept the parliamentary polls with a Muslim Brotherhood linked political group alone notching 235 seats in the 498 member House, the first polls since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, nearly a year ago.
Islamist parties -- the liberal Freedom and Justice Party linked to Muslim Brotherhood and radical Salafists were cruising ahead with 65 per cent votes in the first round of Egyptian parliamentary polls, as the secular parties were trounced in regions in the first post-revolution elections.
An Egyptian court on Saturday ordered the dissolution of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the already banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, in yet another crushing blow to Islamists after the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi last year.
At least 40 people were killed and hundreds injured on Wednesday when Egyptian security forces, backed by bulldozers, stormed two makeshift camps filled with ousted President Mohammed Morsi's supporters, even as the Muslim Brotherhood claimed that 300 died in the "massacre".
Defaint supporters of Egypt's deposed president Mohammed Morsi of Friday staged defiant protest rallies against his removal, with police firing teargas at demonstrators, amidst raising fears of renewed violence as the interim government authorised police to disperse them.
Egypt's military-backed government on Tuesday intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting the group's spiritual leader, delivering a major blow to the Islamists demanding reinstatement of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
Egypt on Wednesday ordered the arrest of top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including its chief, for inciting violence that killed 55 people, even as the authorities said ousted President Mohammed Morsi is at a "safe place".
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