CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday bemoaned the opposition boycott of this year's legislative elections, saying he would have preferred all parties to have done as well as possible. “I am happy, as party leader, at the success of our candidates,” he said, referring to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which secured 420 of 508 parliamentary seats in the polls held on November 28 and December 5. “But as president of Egypt I would have preferred that the other parties (opposition) had obtained their best results,” Mubarak told NPD MPs in a speech broadcast on state television. The powerful opposition Muslim Brotherhood, which won a fifth of seats in parliament at the 2005 election, picked up no seats at all this year after alleging there had been widespread fraud in the first round and boycotted the second leg. Independents garnered 70 seats while the opposition trailed far behind with 14 seats, six going to the liberal Wafd party, which also announced a boycott of the second round. “I would have preferred the (opposition parties) not to have wasted their efforts in arguing for a boycott of the elections, then taking part, then some later announcing a withdrawal and questioning the results of the election,” Mubarak said. “I urge the NDP and the other parties to the examine closely the lessons of these elections, the positives and the negatives, and to support pluralism,” the president said, adding that the “large majority gained by the NPD also brings... an enormous responsibility.” Meanwhile, media reports Sunday said Mubarak had named seven Copts from Egypt's minority Christian community among 10 MPs he appointed to the new parliament. – Agence France
