Groups boycott Egypt's election

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CAIRO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- With boycotts called by Egypt's largest opposition parties, President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party was predicted to win run-off parliamentary elections Sunday.

Amid accusations of fraud, Egypt's largest opposition movements, the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd Party, boycotted the elections and withdrew their candidates -- but their names were already printed on the ballots, al-Masry-al-Youm said.

More than 28 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the run-off elections, the daily said.

Mubarak's National Democratic Party secured 209 of the 221 seats in the first round of elections and is now competing with 386 candidates for the remaining 283 seats, the newspaper said.

The Egyptian Gazette said monitors were banned from polling stations in Cairo, Helwan, Sohag, Qalubia, Minya and Fayyoum despite possessing official permits, the Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Progress said in a report.