A Surprise in Egypt

By Lindsay Wise, Amany Radwan

The Bush Administration's Arab democracy campaign is helping bring change to Egypt, if not quite the sort Washington is after. The fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which strongly opposes U.S. intervention in Iraq and support for Israel, won 76 seats in the first two rounds of parliamentary elections and could gain a total of 100 once the final vote is completed this week. Says Abdel Monem Said of Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies: "Everyone is surprised, perhaps even the Brotherhood."

President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party is still expected to wind up with nearly 80% of the Parliament's 454 seats. But the unprecedented freedom it granted opponents in this election enabled the 77-year-old Brotherhood--whose members run as independents because of a ban on religious parties--to field twice as many candidates as in the last vote five years ago, when 15 members took office. The group did well this year despite voter intimidation, including some poll closings, witnessed by TIME. A U.S. State Department spokesman still praised the vote as "an important step in the democratic reform process." The many calls for change from the U.S. and Europe, acknowledges Brotherhood activist Essam Erian, "made a difference."