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 CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood worked to stretch its lead Tuesday as Egyptians returned to the polls in the final phase of the first parliamentary elections since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak and prosecutors asked a court to deliver “the harshest penalty” against him. 
 
 As the polls opened, some analysts suggested that the party founded by the Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist group and best-organized political force, could come away with a clean majority of the seats in the full Parliament instead of the plurality indicated by previous results. 
 
 Some estimates indicated that the Brotherhood’s party, Freedom and Justice, started the day with nearly 50 percent of the seats awarded in the first two rounds of the vote. It won roughly 40 percent of the seats allocated by party voting, and a higher percentage of the seats contested by individual candidates. And the final nine governorates voting on Tuesday included the historic Brotherhood strongholds of Gharbiya and Daqahliyya in the Delta, where a number of the group’s best known candidates are running, including the former member of Parliament Mohamed Beltaggi. 
 
 Final results remain uncertain, in part because Egypt’s military rulers have yet to spell out the formula that will be used to allocate seats among parties according to their share of the vote. 
 
 In an interview Tuesday, Essam el-Erian, a Freedom and Justice leader who was elected to parliament from Giza, said he still doubted the party would win more than half the seats. 
 
 “Nothing is impossible but it would be very difficult,” he said. 
 
 Still, the Brotherhood has played down its electoral strength before. In the weeks after Mr. Mubarak’s exit last February its leaders suggested that the Brotherhood would seek only a third of the seats in the next Parliament and it is not contesting most of them and expecting to win at least 40 percent. 
 
 The Brotherhood has said repeatedly that it intends to form a coalition or unity government, in part to avoid unnerving Egyptian liberals or Westerners who may fear an Islamist takeover. It may also wish to share the responsibility for what is expected to be a difficult period of adjustment for the Egyptian state and economy. 
 
 But winning a clear majority would enable the Brotherhood’s party, if it chose, to govern without forming a coalition. And removing the necessity of such a coalition government would diminish the power of the partners in any alliance as well as any other parties outside the coalition. 
 
 That would reduce the clout of the ultraconservative Islamists who have so far come in second-place in the first two rounds of the voting, winning as much as 25 percent of the seats by most estimates. And it would also reduce the voice of the various liberal parties, led by the business-friendly Free Egyptians and the left-leaning Social Democrats, who have won most of the remainder of the seats. 
 
 The Brotherhood has so far sought to ally itself with the liberals rather than the most conservative Islamists and it has reiterated that it has no plans to form an all-Islamist government. The strength of the ultraconservatives, known as Salafis, has been the biggest surprise of the voting so far. Many espouse hard-line views seeking sharp reductions in the sale of alcohol, opposing women’s participation in political leadership or public life, and potentially restricting arts and popular culture deemed profane or sacrilegious. 
 
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 Tuesday’s voting also sets up an potential confrontation between the new Parliament and Egypt’s military rulers. Brotherhood leaders have said they expect the Parliament to take authority over the hiring and firing of a prime minister to run the interim government. The military rulers have said they intend to retain that authority and allocate very little power to the Parliament. 
 
 The lower house of Parliament is Egypt’s primarily legislative body, and Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the top military officer who is now acting as de facto chief executive, has scheduled its first session for Jan. 23, two days before the anniversary of the outbreak of protests that ousted Mr. Mubarak. 
 
 With the same anniversary looming over Mr. Mubarak’s trial, prosecutors began to lay out their case that he was culpable for the hundreds of people killed by security forces during the 18 days of protests that ended his rule. Human rights lawyers representing those killed in the shooting have complained with growing alarm that the prosecution has failed to push hard enough or marshal a strong enough case to win a conviction. 
 
 On Tuesday the prosecutor appeared to argue for Mr. Mubarak’s punishment with new vigor. 
 
 “He deserves an end of humiliation and indignity — from the presidential palace to the defendants’ cage and then the harshest penalty,” the prosecutor, Mustafa Suleiman, told the court, according to a report from a journalist from The Associated Press inside the courtroom. (The authorities have strictly limited access.) 
 
 Witnesses said he spoke with his back turned to Mr. Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, who were corralled in the metal cage that is the standard docket in Egyptian criminal courts. All three face charges of using official positions to enrich themselves. 
 
 In laying out his case that Mr. Mubarak was responsible for the deaths of demonstrators, the prosecutor also focused attention on Gamal Mubarak, who had become an important powerbroker in the ruling party and his father’s heir apparent before the revolution. The notion of hereditary success was to many Egyptians an outrage too great to bear, just as similar schemes to pass power within a ruling family have apparently proven too much for the citizens of Tunisia, Libya and Syria as well. 
 
 “Here we have a president who devoted the last decade of his rule to engineer something that no one in Egypt ever dared to do before — the succession of his son,” said the prosecutor declared, according to a report from The A.P. 
 
 Mr. Mubarak was once again wheeled into the court room on a hospital gurney, his head resting on a pillow, and remained prone for what his lawyers have said were health reasons. ||||| The queues formed early and quickly at polling stations across Egypt on Monday, as voters cast their ballots in the first parliamentary elections since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak in February. 
 
 
 
 Large numbers of registered voters turned out on the first day of the three-stage election process, with lines snaking around polling centres under the watchful eye of military soldiers. 
 
 In the capital, Cairo, thousands of voters flocked to schools in the neighbourhoods of Zamalek, Nasr City and Maadi - among others - well before they opened at 8am, to stake their place in line. 
 
 "I've been waiting since 7am [local time]," one voter told Al Jazeera at a polling station in the working-class neighbourhood of Shubra, where hundreds of voters were delayed by the late arrival of ballot papers. 
 
 Logistical problems continued to plague many polling stations across the country, with some voters reporting that stations had not opened more than an hour after the time scheduled, as ink used to mark voters' fingers had not arrived. 
 
 
 
 "The two problems are this, one, ballot papers arriving very late, secondly, judges are arriving very late [and] some not even turning up," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Shubra, said. 
 
 
 
 Additionally, a ban on campaigning at polling stations had been broken, with members of parties handing out pamphlets and banners steps away from the ballot box. 
 
 Voter enthusiasm 
 
 
 
 Despite the problems, many voters expressed enthusiasm for what they said they hoped would be Egypt's first truly free and fair election. 
 
 
 
 "This is the first real vote," said one voter at a polling station in central Cairo who identified himself as Abdullah. 
 
 
 
 He proudly displayed his ink-stained finger indicating he had voted, as he handed out flyers promoting the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party outside the polling station. 
 
 
 
 "Mubarak erased them," he said of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political wing is the The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). "Now they have freedom. Even the name of the party is freedom and justice." 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile in Assiut, one of the most significant governorates in the Upper Egypt region, there appeared to be an exceptionally high turnout by the standards of the country's previous votes. 
 
 
 
 "The lines have not stopped outside the polling centres," Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reported from Assiut. "If we're judging by the turnout, this has been by all accounts a success." 
 
 Women vote in force 
 
 
 
 Women were turning out in high numbers, unusual for such a conservative region, Rageh said. 
 
 
 
 There were no signs of violence or coercion, she reported, but there were campaign violations as some parties continued to campaign even as voting was underway. Poor organisation by authorities was also an issue, our correspondent said. 
 
 Voters in the northern city of Alexandria began arriving at polling stations not long after sunrise. 
 
 
 
 At the Sayyid Mohammed Korayib girls school in the Smouha district, women began queuing shortly after 7am at the female entrance, and by 8am, there were more than 100 waiting in line, with longer queues forming at other polling stations and male entrances around the corner. 
 
 Armed navy troops in blue helmets guarded the stations, and unarmed police officers directed voters once they entered. 
 
 
 
 Poll workers opened the stations shortly after 9am, around an hour after the voting was scheduled to begin, but there was no sign of anger among the calm crowds, who seemed anxious only to get inside. 
 
 
 
 "The people all want elections, all Egyptians want them, except maybe those who started the revolution and are protesting in Tahrir," said Fathiya Abdel Aal, an employee of the finance ministry's customs department. 
 
 
 
 "We don't condone the violence that they are being exposed to but we must have stability, we simply must." 
 
 
 
 Aal said she had faith in God and in Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling military council, and that she had not found the voting process difficult to understand, as many feared. 
 
 
 
 Once the doors opened, the process appeared to go smoothly. Military guards allowed maintained a smooth flow of voters, and civilian poll workers were prepared with information and voter lists. 
 
 Fears over ballots 
 
 
 
 In Sayyid Korayib, voters were assigned one of four classrooms, each staffed by a judge and poll workers, who wore their identification cards on arm bands. 
 
 
 
 Mohamed Aboul Ela, a lower criminal court judge supervising the vote in one room, said the voting had gone well and he did not foresee any problems. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jamal Elshayyal reports from an Alexandria polling station 
 
 Some activists and party workers had expressed concern recently when voting was extended to two days, meaning ballot boxes would remain in the overnight custody of either the interior ministry or the military, neither of which is a wholly trusted institution at this point. 
 
 But Aboul Ela said he would seal both the ballot boxes and the entrances to the classroom and require the military and police commanders to sign forms entrusting the ballots to them. 
 
 
 
 If the seals were broken, he would nullify the vote, he said. 
 
 
 
 Across central Alexandria, brief downpours did not seem to dampen turnout, with long lines of men and women snaking out of nearly every polling place. 
 
 
 
 The FJP made its presence felt throughout the city. 
 
 FJP workers could be seen advising voters on how the ballots had been organised while dressed in hats, pins and vests emblazoned with the scales of justice, the group's distinctive symbol. 
 
 
 
 The workers handed out tiny calendars bearing the party's symbol and name, and erected tents - covered with party banners - where men with laptops helped voters learn their unique voting number and location, while also providing them with party flyers. 
 
 
 
 First stage 
 
 
 
 Voters are choosing 168 of the 498 deputies, which will form the new lower house of parliament. The vote is only the first stage in an election timetable which lasts until March 2012 and covers two houses of parliament. 
 
 
 
 In this round, some of Egypt's most populous areas will vote, including Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, Port Said and Luxor. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "I am boycotting because I believe it is a circus," - Hossam el-Hamalawy, Egyptian blogger 
 
 
 
 More than 50 political parties are contesting the elections, along with thousands of candidates running as independents. 
 
 
 
 But the preparations were marred by a new wave of demonstrations, as protesters continued to occupy Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand the military council that replaced Mubarak hand power to a civilian government. 
 
 
 
 Some activists called for a boycott of the vote before it began. 
 
 
 
 "I am boycotting because I believe it is a circus," Hossam el-Hamalawy, an Egyptian blogger and activist, told Al Jazeera. 
 
 
 
 "You cannot have clean elections while the police force which has not been purged is in charge of securing the ballot boxes. 
 
 
 
 "You have to settle the battle in the streets, then you settle it in the ballot boxes. We have to win our occupation in Tahrir Square first." 
 
 - Malika Bilal reported from Cairo; Evan Hill reported from Alexandria ||||| Enlarge image Egypt Holds Final Round of Vote as Mubarak Faces Prosecutors Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Egyptian men walk past electoral posters plastered on a wall on Jan. 2, 2012 in al-Arish, Egypt. Enlarge image Egypt Holds Final Round of Voting Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Electoral banners hang in an old market in Sharm El Sheikh, ahead of the third phase of voting in Egypt's parliamentary elections. Enlarge image Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak AFP/Getty Images Hosni Mubarak, former Egyptian president, lies on a stretcher as he leaves court following his trial at police academy, on the outskirts of Cairo. 
 
 Egyptians voted in the third round of parliamentary elections today as prosecutors began their case in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak by describing him as a “tyrant” responsible for violence and oppression. 
 
 The final stage of the vote, the first since Mubarak was ousted in February, covers nine provinces including the North and South Sinai governorates. Islamist groups are expected to consolidate the gains they made in earlier rounds, in which the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party took the lead ahead of the more conservative Nour party, which represents Salafi Muslims. 
 
 “The third phase will not change much the nature of the upcoming parliament,” Nabil Abdel Fattah, director of the Al- Ahram Center for Social and Historic Studies in Cairo, said in a telephone interview. “It will likely underline the control of Islamists.” 
 
 The election and Mubarak’s trial, which resumed last week after a two-month hiatus, take place amid growing opposition to the ruling generals, who say they won’t cede power before presidential elections are held by the end of June. It’s unclear what powers the elected assembly, due to hold its first session on Jan. 23, will have and how a new government will be formed. 
 
 Clashes in Cairo last month between security forces and demonstrators calling for an earlier end to military rule left at least 17 people dead. Protesters are preparing to take to the streets on Jan. 25 to mark the anniversary of the mass rallies that drove Mubarak from power. 
 
 Slowing Growth 
 
 “The new parliament will witness political struggles between the military council, the Brotherhood and Salafis, and the revolutionary forces,” said Abdel Fattah. 
 
 Economic growth has slowed as the unrest deters tourists and investors. Foreign-currency reserves declined by 44 percent to $20.2 billion in the first 11 months of 2011. The benchmark EGX 30 stock index (EGX) lost 49 percent last year, making it the third-worst performer among world markets tracked by Bloomberg. 
 
 About 14 million voters are eligible to vote in this round, and 150 parliamentary seats are up for grabs. In Minya, one of the provinces where balloting is being held today, Mina Magdy, a Christian, said gains by Islamists in previous rounds encouraged him to vote for the secular Egyptian Bloc alliance. 
 
 “We’re trying to balance things out,” he said. “We want more liberals in parliament.” 
 
 The court trying Mubarak adjourned until tomorrow, state television reported. It showed Mubarak carried on a gurney to and from the makeshift courtroom in a police academy. 
 
 ‘Oppression and Violence’ 
 
 Prosecutor Moustafa Soliman told the court Mubarak was a “tyrant” who sought to install his son, Gamal, in his place, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported. His trial is a reminder to future rulers that they will be held accountable for breaking the law, the prosecutor said. 
 
 Mubarak allowed former Interior Minister Habib el-Adli to “practice oppression and violence against Egyptians so he could remain in office,” Soliman said, according to MENA. Police seeking to block protesters from reaching Cairo’s Tahrir Square targeted their heads and chests, and some were run over by police vehicles, he said. 
 
 Prosecution arguments against the former president, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and conspiring to kill protesters, will continue over the next two days, state television said. At least 846 people were killed during the revolt. 
 
 Gamal Mubarak and the former president’s other son, Alaa, are facing corruption charges, and el-Adli and six of his aides are also on trial. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Mariam Fam in Cairo at mfam1@bloomberg.net. 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Louis Meixler at lmeixler@bloomberg.net. 
 
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– The final round of voting began in Egypt today, and it looks like the Muslim Brotherhood could walk off with a controlling majority of seats in Parliament's lower house. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, the country's mainstream Islamist party, had already won a high percentage of the seats awarded in the first and second rounds of voting. Two of the nine provinces voting today are Brotherhood strongholds, where some of the party's most well-known candidates are running, the New York Times reports. A plurality, not a majority, was originally predicted for the Freedom and Justice Party. A majority would allow the party to govern alone, but the Brotherhood has repeatedly said it plans to form a coalition government, and has aligned itself with more liberal parties rather than the ultraconservative Salafis, who are in second place with up to 25% of the seats so far. Also today, prosecutors began presenting their case against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Bloomberg notes. His trial resumed last week after a two-month break; state TV today showed Mubarak being carried to and from the courtroom on a gurney. "He deserves an end of humiliation and indignity," said the chief prosecutor, according to the AP.