Cairo: The head of Egypt's election commission said the announcement of final results for first-round parliamentary elections has been delayed until Friday.
The commission previously said results from the two-day balloting would be announced late Thursday. But the state MENA news agency quotes Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim as saying a large voter turnout has slowed down the counting process.
Judges supervising the vote say near-final results show the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood taking up to 45 percent of the contested seats. This will likely give Islamist parties a majority.
The vote is the first of six rounds of parliamentary voting that will drag on until March.
The judges spoke on condition of anonymity because the count remains unfinished.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, December 01, 2011, 18:50