Egyptian Islamists OK with Israeli peace treaty

CAIRO, Egypt — The spokesman of Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist party has told Israeli Army Radio that the group is not opposed to the country's historic peace treaty with Israel.

Yousseri Hamad's interview, broadcast on Wednesday, is unprecedented for followers of the Salafi Islamic trend, which follows a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that practiced in Saudi Arabia.

Many Israelis are concerned that Islamist parties would try to cancel the 1979 treaty.

"We are not opposed to the agreement," Hamad told the Israeli radio station. He said some changes are needed, and "the place for that is the negotiation table." He told The Associated Press that the changes include troop levels in the Sinai Desert.

The Salafi Nour Party has so far won a quarter of seats in Egypt's parliamentary elections.

The Salafis say openly they will push for Islamic law to be strictly enforced, and some have railed against tourists who wear bikinis at beach resorts popular with foreigners. At a recent campaign rally in the coastal city of Alexandria, Salafis covered mermaids statues with cloth.

The news of their tacit approval of peace with Israel is surely a relief to the Israelis, as the Salifis and the slightly-less conservative Muslim Brotherhood are likely to control the government once elections are completed early next year.

Still, Islamist parties appealed to many voters who believe they'll run a clean government. Public anger over rampant corruption under Mubarak was a major impetus behind the uprising. The Islamist groups are also known to many for providing social services, especially to the poor, something that Mubarak's regime failed to offer.

In city of Suez on the southern end of the Suez Canal, voters complained of neglect by the Mubarak regime and hoped the new leadership would fix the economy.

Voter Ahmed Salim, 48, came to vote with his daughter, who wore a face veil that left only her eyes showing. He said he whole family supported the Salafis and just wanted to see an end to corruption.

Throughout the country, activists for all main parties violated the legal ban on campaigning on election day by distributing flyers outside of polling stations. Throughout the vote, the Muslim Brotherhood has benefited from a highly organized campaign, and its activists have been the most visible.

Many voters said they had little knowledge about the parties or candidates, even the ones they voted for, prompting many to worry that last minute campaigning will easily affect confused citizens, especially in a country where one-third of the population can't read.

Outside a polling station in Giza, a bearded man grabbed an elderly man on his way to vote and told him "Al-Nour party, OK?"

In another polling station, a reporter from The Associated Press saw a judge overseeing the vote fill out a ballot for an old man. When the judge noticed the reporter, he shouted, "Why are you here, old man, if you don't know who to vote for?"

Final results for 150 seats from the first round have been announced. The second round, which ends Tuesday, will decide 180 seats in the 498-seat People's Assembly, the parliament's lower house.

The second round runs for two days through Thursday. The final stage is Jan. 3-4. Rounds are divided up by province, with nine of the 27 provinces voting in each round.

It remains unclear what powers the new parliament, expected to be seated in March, will have.

In theory, it is supposed to form a 100-member assembly to write a new constitution. But the military council that has ruled since Mubarak's fall says the parliament will not be representative of all of Egypt, and should not have sole power over the drafting of the constitution. Last week, the military appointed a 30-member council to oversee the process.

The Muslim Brotherhood has refused to participate in the council and is pushing for a stronger role for parliament.

Since taking power, the military has sought to protect and expand its special place in the Egyptian state, saying at one point that it would choose four-fifths of the members of the constitutional committee. It is also trying to protect its budget from oversight by a civilian body.

Nearly 19 million of Egypt's 50 million eligible voters can participate in the second round.