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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. ||||| 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. 
 
 Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. ||||| Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood has posted a statement on its website: 
 
 Long-hidden facts and actions that we have been warning against are finally revealed in stark defiance to all reason and logic. Here comes the counter-revolution plainly witnessed by all, so everyone knows that we are facing a defining moment and a critical turning point, as the great people's revolution faces the dark powers of repression, which are making a final forceful and desperate push trying to circumvent the will of the people ... We are now facing a heinous coup shamelessly aborting the revolution ... 
 
 The solution, it suggests, is for "the great Egyptian people to turn out in million-man marches to the ballot boxes". 
 
 Here's a summary of events today. 
 
 Egypt 
 
 • Leading figures including the Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and the novelist Alaa al-Aswany, have confirmed they will boycott this weekend's presidential runoff. ElBaradei told the Guardian that the court's decision to dissolve parliament had left Egypt in a total mess. 
 
 • The Islamist-dominated Parliament has been formally told that it is to be dissolved following Thursday's court's verdict. The order came from Egypt's military leaders, according reports. 
 
 • Protesters are gathering for a planned protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square. But activists are struggling to find an outlet for their anger and fear that the square has been allowed to become a sanitised space for letting off steam, according to the Guardian's Jack Shenker (see 2.57pm). 
 
 • The Muslim Brotherhood claims its polling shows its candidate Mohamed Morsi is on course to win the election. Others claim the vote is too close to call. The Brotherhood has rejected calls to pull out of the race. Morsi said there is no alternative to "the revolution at the ballot boxes". 
 
 • Amnesty has warned that a decision to extend the military's power to arrest and investigate civilians for a wide range of offences would pave the way for fresh human rights violations. Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International, said: "We fear this latest decision signals that instead of ushering in proper reform, the authorities are intent on holding on tight to the emergency powers they enjoyed for so long." 
 
 Syria 
 
 • Violence from both sides in Syria is increasing, according to the head of the UN's monitoring mission Robert Mood. "There appears to be a lack of willingness to seek a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions," he said. 
 
 • Russia has confirmed that it has sent repaired helicopters to Syria, but has restated that it has sent no new helicopters to the Assad regime. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that Moscow isn't discussing Syria's future without President Bashar al-Assad as US officials have suggested. Anti-Russian sentiments featured prominently in Friday protests across Syria. 
 
 • Government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, and children during the current conflict, witnesses and victims told Human Rights Watch. It documented more than 20 specific incidents of sexual assault, five of which involved more than one victim. 
 
 • A Russian-made helicopter attacked a hospital in near Aleppo, according to an eyewitness account by the Times. 
 
 Syria: Here's today's anti-Russia message from the protesters in the Idlib town of Kafranbel. 
 
 The Facebook group Banners from Kafranbel has an archive of banner-making from the town. 
 
 The Kafranbel protest was one scores of demonstrations to take place across Syria today. 
 
 The central city of Homs witnessed one of the today's biggest demonstrations. 
 
 Syria: Two senior UN advisers have urged the international community to intervene in Syria to meet its responsibility to protect civilians. 
 
 Francis Deng and Edward Luck, special advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and on the Responsibility to Protect, issued a joint statement urging the international community "the full range of tools available under the UN charter." 
 
 They said: 
 
 With the increasing violence and deepening sectarian tensions, the risk of further mass atrocity crimes is high. The time for action is now. 
 
 Egypt: Al-Ahram is reporting (in Arabic) that the parliamentary secretariat has now received a formal notice from the ruling military council dissolving parliament. 
 
 Egypt: The fix has been on for 18 months, as revolutionaries now struggle to find an outlet for their anger, says Jack Shenker in Cairo. 
 
 This weekend's presidential runoff will be hard to rig, but the authorities have successfully manipulated the political atmosphere, he said in a Skype interview. 
 
 I haven't seen any evidence of systematic, top down, state orchestrated vote manipulation of the sort that we witnessed under Mubarak. Millions of people will come out and vote tomorrow for the [the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate] Mohamed Morsi. It is logistically very difficult, given the structure of the elections, for those votes to be discounted. We need to zoom out of this idea of specific electoral fraud, and look at the broader picture, which is that these elections are taking place in a political climate that has been entirely manipulated by Scaf, by the old regime, from day one. It has been manipulated to give people a sense of fear, a sense of security, a nostalgia for stability, and security in the street. In that respect the fix has been on for 18 months. As a result of that, at least until the last couple of days, [former PM Ahmed] Shafiq probably had the upper hand, because many people are attracted to his end-to-chaos narrative. Many who might be expected to resist him and stop the old regime reasserting itself are so disillusioned with the Muslim Brotherhood that they won't turn up to vote. But the events of the last couple of days may shift that. We have already seen the April 6th Movement saying it will now endorse Mohamed Morsi despite many many ideological differences with the Muslim Brotherhood. Maybe we will see more of that over the coming hours. 
 
 Jack added that it has been a depressing couple of days from a revolutionary perspective. Scaf, the military junta, appear to have played their hand very well and institutionally quelled some of the momentum for political change. 
 
 But while the generals may have won the battle they could have lost the war, Century foundation analyst Michael Hanna told Jack. Scaf has established itself as a very obvious target for those who want political change. 
 
 Jack said the Muslim Brotherhood have decided to take part in the runoff because it has always opted for compromise over protest. It is constantly trying to seek alliances within the status quo, he said. They would fear chaos, if they pulled out of the race. 
 
 Polling suggests Morsi has the edge over Shafiq, but there has been a marked drop in support for the Brotherhood since the Parliamentary elections. I think it is going to be very close. A lot of people who weren't willing to vote for the Brotherhood will be galvanized to come out and vote now, given this institutional land grab we have seen by Scaf in the last 48 hours. But their absolute confidence that they will win is probably misplaced. It is going to be closer than we think. I can't call it - 48 hours ago I would have said Shafiq. Right now I am genuinely in two minds. 
 
 The attitude towards protests in Tahrir Square is beginning to change, Jack said: 
 
 There is a huge amount of anger and frustration, but people are struggling to find an outlet for it. People are beginning to see Tahrir Square as a trap - a kind of sanitized space in which forces behind the status quo allow dissent to be aired. A place where people can let off steam but ultimately a kind of contained urban space in which nothing changes. After the Mubarak verdict people flocked to Tahrir square in quite large numbers. There was an element of festivity, an element of anger. The security forces kept their distance and after a couple of days everyone went home and life went on the counter revolution went on. People fear that the military generals have found a way to co-opt Tahrir into their own authority, where mobilization doesn't really threaten the course of institutional politics. This has led to a lot disillusionment. People are not sure where to take their protests and where to take their energy. We will see people in the square but whether that reaches critical mass remains quite doubtful at least for now. But that may change after the election especially if Shafiq is triumphant. 
 
 Syria: A bomb has exploded near al-Majed mosque in the Midan area of Damascus, according to the Revolution Leadership Council of Damascus. It says: 
 
 
 
 The blast resulted in at least six injuries, and ambulances rushed to the area in about one minute only. Security forces were later deployed in the area and didn't allow anyone near the scene.However, a demo took off from the mosque and was fired at by shabiha. 
 
 Syria: Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov (left) says Moscow isn't discussing Syria's future without President Bashar al-Assad as Washington has claimed, the Associated Press reports. 
 
 Today, Lavrov denied Thursday's statement by US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland that Moscow and Washington "are continuing to talk about a post-Assad transition strategy". 
 
 Lavrov, who met the State Department's No 2 official, William Burns, in Kabul on Thursday, maintained that Russia believes it's up to the Syrians to determine their country's future and said foreign players shouldn't meddle. 
 
 "It's not true that we are discussing Syria's fate after Bashar Assad," Lavrov said following talks in Moscow with his Iraqi counterpart. "We aren't dealing with a regime change either through approving unilateral actions at the United Nations security council nor through taking part in some political conspiracies." 
 
 In a tweet yesterday, the Russian foreign ministry said it is not supporting the Assad regime but "the fundamentals of state": 
 
 #Lavrov: It is not the #Syrian regime that Russia supports but the fundamentals of state, which are cornerstones of stability in the region — MFA Russia (@MFA_Russia) June 14, 2012 
 
 Egypt: Mohamed Morsi is in line for a landslide victory in this weekend's presidential run-off unless there is ballot-rigging, David Hearst writes from Cairo in an article for Comment is free. 
 
 All polls, taken from outside and by the Brotherhood itself, indicate a Morsi win by a majority of 75% to Shafiq's 25%. But only if the elections are fair. The expat vote which has already been declared from Egyptians living in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates are consistent with these figures — although, interestingly, almost every Egyptian citizen living in Israel voted for Shafiq. The political map of Egypt is not uniform. Cairo would naturally vote for the person they call the stability candidate, Shafiq – but the governate of Giza, centre of the tourism industry, by the pyramids just outside Cairo, will be solidly for the brotherhood. Then there are the byzantine ways of what is called "soft rigging". In the first round, 2m false ID cards were issued to members of the armed forces and security services who are by law forbidden to vote. The ballot boxes in roughly half of the polling stations were left unguarded by representatives of all political parties for 11 hours. About 40% of the 90m electorate fall below the international poverty line, and in rural areas voters were given 500 Egyptian pounds to vote for any candidate other than the Brotherhood. This is certainly not the last throw of the dice for the old regime, but the challenge is whether the rigging will be enough to tilt the balance in Shafiq's favour. 
 
 Egypt: A decision by the justice ministry to extend the military's power to arrest and investigate civilians for a wide range of offences would pave the way for fresh human rights violations and must be urgently revoked, Amnesty International said today. 
 
 According to the decision, announced on Wednesday by justice minister Adel Abdel Hamid Abdallah, military police and intelligence officers are now granted the same powers as judicial police when dealing with civilians suspected of offences related to national security and public order. 
 
 According to the head of Egypt's military judiciary, the decision fills a gap left by the end of the Mubarak-era state of emergency – which expired on 31 May after being in effect for three decades. He insists it will not be used against peaceful protesters. 
 
 Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International, said: 
 
 The end of Egypt's long-standing state of emergency was an opportunity for the authorities to end decades of abuses that have corroded the country's justice system. Yet we fear this latest decision signals that instead of ushering in proper reform, the authorities are intent on holding on tight to the emergency powers they enjoyed for so long. 
 
 Syria: Protesters in Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib province, have been demonstrating today under banner "Russia is the enemy of the Syrian people", al-Ayyam reports. 
 
 Egypt: In an interview with the Guardian, Mohamed ElBaradei says he will not vote in the presidential poll. He expects Shafiq to win, but has harsh words for the Muslim Brotherhood. Jack Shenker writes from Cairo: 
 
 Mohamed ElBaradei (left) has told the Guardian that Egypt is now suffering under even more adverse conditions than it was under the Mubarak dictatorship, and warned that tomorrow's presidential elections will do little more than bring a 'new emperor' to the throne. "We are in a total mess, a confused process that – assuming good intentions – has led us nowhere except the place we were at 18 months ago, but under even more adverse conditions," said the Nobel Laureate, who withdrew from the presidential race earlier this year arguing that a fair vote could not be held while the country remained in the grip of a military junta. "We are going to elect a president in the next couple of days without a constitution and without a parliament. He will be a new emperor, holding both legislative and executive authority and with the right to enact laws and even amend the constitution as he sees fit." The former UN nuclear weapons chief predicted that Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister and the man seen by many as a powerful embodiment of the old regime, would emerge victorious from the looming poll. "Shafiq as president of the 'new Egypt' is an oxymoron," said the 69-year-old. "In this scenario the new president would be backed by Scaf [the ruling military council] and political authority in the country will continue to be held by Scaf, but I think it most likely that he is the one that is going to win." ElBaradei confirmed he would not be casting a vote but refused to formally endorse the growing boycott campaign – because, he argued, the failure to turn it into a mass movement could hand a propaganda boost to the regime. At times ElBaradei has been viewed as an opposition figurehead who occupied the rare position of being able to command respect from revolutionaries, secular liberals and political Islamists. Today, though, he spoke out against a catalogue of revolutionary mismanagement on all sides, with his harshest words reserved for the Muslim Brotherhood – the movement blamed by many pro-change activists for a catastrophic mishandling of relations with the ruling generals over the past 18 months which has helped fuel the revolution's current predicament. "The Brotherhood have not served themselves well – they have scared people right, left and centre with some of the extremist views put forward from them and other Islamist groups," claimed ElBaradei. "The Brotherhood should have realised that the vote they got at the parliamentary elections was not a true reflection of their support in the street – it was the product of a specific set of political conditions at the time. They should have reached out to other segments of society and built a broad coalition but they haven't done that – they started by saying we want to be part of big cake but they ended up wanting to have the whole cake for themselves. And that created a backlash, which will be visible in the next couple of days. People have called on them to withdraw from the presidential race, but they insist on going forward – why?" He also argued that revolutionary momentum had been stalled by the failure of young protesters to embrace institutional leadership – wading into a thorny debate over the relative merits of horizontal and 'leaderless' political change about which many activists feel strongly. "The mortal mistake was that from day one the youth never agreed on a unified demand and never agreed to delegate authority to a group of people to speak on their behalf," said ElBaradei. "They were very happy, and we understand that, to say the revolution is leaderless and that every one of us is the revolution. But they ended up being crushed by APCs and massacred at Maspero. I hope that they have learned the lesson and I think people are now talking about getting organised under a unified leadership and engaging the new president to find a way of working together, preparing themselves for future elections and push for national reconciliation." The call on young radicals to engage with the new president – particularly if it is Shafik – is likely to be ignored by many revolutionaries, some of whom believe the only solution is to return to mobilisation on the street. But ElBaradei said that the broader population is fatigued with violent clashes and insisted that a process of national reconciliation is necessary to drive the revolution forward. "Not cooperating with the new president and saying he has no legitimacy will be difficult because he will have been selected by ballot," he said. "Either we try that or we have to get into a process of national reconciliation, where people say 'well this isn't what we wanted, the process has been screwed, but for the sake of the country we need to find a formula to coexist together'. It's the question the revolution will face in the next few weeks." "People are tired," he continued. "I'm not sure street protests will get a lot of support from the rank and file after the elections – people want so-called stability. I think we need national reconciliation for the sake of the people in whose interests the revolution was staged – the 50% of Egyptians who are below the poverty line and who have seen nothing good coming out of the revolution. In fact for them, things have got worse." 
 
 Egypt: A few protesters are starting to gather in Tahrir Square, but it remains pretty empty. 
 
 #egypt Anti Shafiq protestors in Tahrir Square calling for gains of revolution to continue. twitter.com/SkyNewsEd/stat… — James Birtles (@SkyNewsEd) June 15, 2012 
 
 Egypt: The high-profile activist Wael Ghonim is staying chipper about the revolution despite yesterday's court verdict. 
 
 The only thing that will make us go back to living in fear, oppression and silence is a time machine - they haven't invented that yet. — Wael Ghonim (@Ghonim) June 15, 2012 
 
 Egypt: Saad El-Katatny, the speaker of the People's Assembly, says parliament has not yet been notified of its dissolution in line with yesterday's decision from the Supreme Constitutional Court's decision, Ahram Online reports. 
 
 This may simply be a bureaucratic delay, or it may be significant ... 
 
 Syria: Violence from both sides in Syria is increasing, according to the head of the UN's monitoring mission Robert Mood. 
 
 He expressed alarm about the fate of civilians trapped in the violence and said the work of the monitors was being hampered. 
 
 In a statement he said: 
 
 Violence, over the past 10 days, has been intensifying, again willingly by the both parties, with losses on both sides and significant risks to our observers. The Syrian population, civilians, are suffering and in some locations, civilians have been trapped by ongoing operations. The Mission established itself as the factual voice on the ground, to ensure that the pain and the suffering of the Syrian people is recognised and addressed. But the escalating violence is now limiting our ability to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects. The six-point Plan does not belong to Kofi Annan, it does not belong to Unsmis. It belongs to the Syrian parties that have accepted it and the international community that has endorsed it. There is no other plan on the table yet it is not being implemented. There appears to be a lack of willingness to seek a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions. This is not a static mission. The review by the security council on the mission and its mandate will commence in the coming days and weeks. It is important that the parties give this mission a chance and the international community gives this mission a role that best serves the aspirations and welfare of the Syrian people. 
 
 Last night there was a call for Mood to address the security council next week: 
 
 Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig has asked the UNSC to schedule briefing by chief UN monitor in Syria, Gen. Mood. Probably Tuesday — columlynch (@columlynch) June 14, 2012 
 
 Bahrain: The political stalemate in Bahrain is generating tensions far beyond the tiny island kingdom, increasing the danger of Sunni-Shia sectarianism spreading more widely through the Gulf, according to a new report from Chatham House, the foreign policy thinktank. 
 
 "In the absence of any serious process of political reform, the situation in Bahrain is increasingly fragmented and violence is gradually escalating – raising the spectre of civil conflict that could draw other regional actors into a strategic financial and military hub," the report's author, Jane Kinninmont writes. 
 
 Apart from the possible repercussions of this elsewhere in the Gulf, it also places Britain and the US in a difficult position: 
 
 The repression in Bahrain, a western ally, complicates and hinders efforts of the US and UK to sketch out a new policy towards a Middle East where demands for democracy have become increasingly vocal. Both governments face increasing criticism from both the Bahraini opposition, who see them as complicit in the crackdown, and from parts of the Bahraini establishment, where there have been allegations that the US plotted with Iran to organise the protests. The UK alliance with the Al Khalifa also draws criticism at home, as indicated by the furore over the 2012 Formula One. Allies of the Al Khalifa want the Bahraini monarchy to be sustainable and accepted. They should help to persuade the ruling family that one of the biggest risks it faces is its own reluctance to reform. 
 
 Tunisia: Religious rivals are due to hold demonstrations in the kasbah of Tunis today. The Ennahda party, which leads the government, and the Reform Party (a Salafist movement) both say they have been given permission for protests, Tunisia Live reports. 
 
 Meanwhile, the interior ministry insists that it has not authorised any marches for today. 
 
 The key to this apparent discrepancy may lie in the word "marches", Tunisia Live suggests: if the protesters hold static demonstrations without marching they may not be breaking the law. 
 
 Egypt: The prominent writer, Alaa al-Aswany, author of the Yacoubian Building, has urged voters to boycott this weekend's presidential runoff. 
 
 Writing in the Huffington Post, he says: 
 
 If the Muslim Brotherhood took their national responsibility seriously, they would call for the elections to be annulled and rerun after [Ahmed] Shafiq was disqualified and put on trial. Unfortunately the Brotherhood is repeating all its mistakes - as soon as the prospect of winning power looms, they lose sight of all other considerations, however important. The second round is illegitimate and will be rigged, just as the first round was rigged, in order to ensure that Shafiq takes the presidency. If Egyptians object to the fraud after Shafiq takes office they will be violently suppressed ... Dear reader, if you do go to vote in the second round then you will be giving Shafiq the presidency of Egypt. The second round cannot be valid until the law excluding former politicians is applied to Shafiq, until he goes on trial for corruption, until instances of electoral fraud are investigated and until Article 28 is repealed. Unless these legitimate demands are met I will not be taking part in the second round of the farce. On election day I will go and spoil my ballot paper. If many people spoil their ballot papers, it will send a powerful message that the elections are not valid. 
 
 Egypt: Activists from the April 6 movement, which helped galvanise Egyptians against Hosni Mubarak, plan to stage a demonstration in Tahrir Square later today in protest against the court's verdicts. 
 
 It called for the rally to start at 5 pm local time (4pm BST)."We will save our revolution. We will save Egypt from military rule," the group said in a statement sent out this morning. 
 
 Tahrir Square is quiet for now. 
 
 Al-Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports that Revolutionary Socialists will also take part in the demonstration. 
 
 Egypt: Yesterday's ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court has wrong-footed the Muslim Brotherhood at a critical moment, and it is far from clear what the movement's strategy will be during the next few days. 
 
 Last night, the Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, held an emergency meeting where they decided – on a majority vote – that their candidate, Mohamed Morsi, would stay in the presidential contest, Ahram Online reports. 
 
 Morsi (pictured) himself said there is no alternative to "the revolution at the ballot boxes". Mubarak's regime is constantly trying to reinvent itself, he said. "We'll go as far as we can, and if the former regime tries to rise, the revolution will be more severe this time." 
 
 Al-Jazeera correspondent Jamal El Shayyal, reporting from Egypt, describes this as "a huge gamble" on the part of the Brotherhood. 
 
 They are putting their hopes in the Egyptian people, and this is seen as a last ditch attempt to call on the people's support. It is also a warning for [Ahmed] Shafiq and his people, saying if they try and meddle with the elections, they will only have themselves to blame. 
 
 A couple of tweets from the Brotherhood last night questioned the court's power to dissolve parliament but at present it is not clear whether this represents the Brotherhood's considered view: 
 
 @LaurenBohnSupreme Court doesn't have the power to dissolve the parliament, it only decides on constitutionality of the laws — Ikhwanweb (@Ikhwanweb) June 14, 2012 
 
 Given the Brotherhood's need to show its commitment to constitutional politics, it has little alternative but to accept yesterday's court ruling. 
 
 Morsi was clearly unhappy about the ruling but said: "I respect the decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court in that I respect the institutions of the state and the principle of separation of powers." 
 
 Meanwhile, there is speculation of a backroom deal with the military council which would give the prime minister's to the Brotherhood assuming, as many now expect, that Shafiq wins the presidential run-off. 
 
 Ahram Online quotes an unnamed Brotherhood source as saying: 
 
 Deep down, nobody is expecting Mursi to win ... We don't want to get into a confrontation, but we want to make sure that Shafiq won't be running the state in the absence of revolutionary forces – this is why we want a strong presence in the next government. 
 
 Syria: Russia has confirmed that it has sent repaired helicopters to Syria, but has restated that it has sent no new helicopters to the Assad regime. 
 
 Russia's foreign ministry tweeted: 
 
 Russia has not resumed the provision of combat helicopters to Syria. Military cooperation with #Syria is limited to defence equipment — MFA Russia (@MFA_Russia) June 15, 2012 
 
 Regarding helicopters, Russia has been involved in routine maintenance of equipment exported to #Syria many years ago — MFA Russia (@MFA_Russia) June 15, 2012 
 
 Meanwhile, Syria's permanent representative to the UN Bashar Jaafari, has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding and supplying an illegal armed rebellion in Syria. 
 
 In a video by the UN blog Inner City Press Jaafari also described reports about his daughter as "unethical and immoral" after it emerged that the US broadcaster Barbara Walters secured Sheherazad Jaafari a place at Columbia University and work experience with Piers Morgan's CNN programme. 
 
 Egypt: The court's rulings do not necessarily amount to a restoration of the ancien regime, according to Middle East analyst Juan Cole. He also sees some validity in the judges decision that the election of a third of MPs was unconstitutional because of the tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood. 
 
 The electoral law had set aside a third of seats for independents, in an effort to avoid dominance of that body by well-organized remnants of the regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak and by the even better-organized Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, many "independents" who ran and won had the backing of the parties, especially the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nur Party. The court found that the parties had subverted the intent of the law, and in so doing had invalidated the entire elected parliament. It ordered that parliament be dissolved and new elections held. About 46% of seats in the parliament were held by the Muslim Brotherhood party, and another 24% were captured by the hard line fundamentalist Salafis. This outcome may well have been a fluke. Voters appear to have been trying to ensure that the Mubarak regime did not reestablish itself, so they put the fundamentalists in the parliament. But when the parliament predictably began making noises about banning alcohol and swimming suits, the public reaction was negative. While the fundamentalists will do well in any free and fair election, it is not clear that they can repeat their dominance of parliament so handily. There is certainly a case to be made that the Muslim Brotherhood behaved badly. Its leaders knew what they were doing when they ran candidates as "independents." Once it got a working majority in parliament, the Brotherhood gave every evidence of seeking to make itself the one party in a new one-party state. 
 
 Syria: Government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, and children during the current conflict, witnesses and victims told Human Rights Watch. 
 
 It documented over 20 specific incidents of sexual assault, five of which involved more than one victim. 
 
 Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said: 
 
 Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government's torture arsenal and Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity. The assaults are not limited to detention facilities – government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps. 
 
 Syria: The UN monitors are the keepers of truth on the conflict in Syria, the head of UN's monitoring mission, Robert Mood, has claimed in a new video. 
 
 He said the key to troubled mission was "building confidence and trust". Mood added: 
 
 We are the owners of the factual picture from the ground. This factual voice from the ground with the Syrian people serves both the opposition and other elements in society. I'm still convinced this can pull Syria back from the brink. 
 
 (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live. On the eve of the presidential election runoff the dust is yet to settle on Thursday's momentous court verdict. 
 
 Here's a roundup of the latest developments: 
 
 Egypt 
 
 • The highest court's decision to dissolve parliament and allow the army-backed candidate Ahmed Shafiq to stay in the presidential race has been denounced as a coup by opposition leaders. The decision by the supreme constitutional court – whose judges were appointed by Mubarak – brought into sharp focus the power struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the supreme council of the armed forces (Scaf), the military council that took up the reins of power after Mubarak's fall. 
 
 Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the United Nations nuclear agency, tweeted: 
 
 Electing president in the absence of constitution and parliament is electing an "emperor" with more powers than deposed dictator. A travesty — Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei) June 14, 2012 
 
 • The court's rulings pile confusion upon chaos, writes Ian Black. 
 
 Just two days before the runoff round of an already polarised presidential election, an extraordinary twist has created profound new uncertainties. The most dramatic interpretation is that it spells a decisive victory for the forces of counter-revolution ... Shafiq's battle against Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, has been dubbed a "nightmare scenario" by Egyptian commentators who see it as a throwback to the bad old days when the military-backed presidency was ranged against the world's oldest Islamist movement, with little else in the way of independent political forces between them. But the court's second ruling is far more volatile in its implications. The dissolution of the entire parliament – not just byelections for the third of MPs deemed to have been improperly elected – means that the Islamists who dominate it, from the Brotherhood and the hardline Salafi Nur party, will feel disenfranchised and cry foul. 
 
 • What was beginning to look like a coup in slow motion is no longer moving in slow motion, writes Egypt analyst Nathan Brown in Foreign Policy. 
 
 The dispersal of parliament, the sudden constitutional vacuum, the Shafiq surge, the reversion of state-owned media, the revival of a key element of the state of emergency by a decree from an unaccountable justice minister - all these things point in one direction ... Democracy - in the sense of majority rule with minority rights - is now losing badly. 
 
 • A military coup has been in operation since February 2011, claims the high-profile activist Hossam El-Hamalawy in Jadaliyya. He calls on the revolutionary forces to organise, resolve their differences and fight back. 
 
 This coming wave of repression will not finish off the revolution. Again, it will take several years for the dust to settle. The revolutionary camp lacks the essential tools to fight back, in other words, a national organization for the most advanced sections of the labour and youth movements, and a coherent united front that coordinates between the different revolutionary groups in the capital and the provinces. And in such tough times, when the counterrevolution is in full steam, the need for such an organization becomes more urgent. 
 
 • The Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, claims he will serve the revolution if he is elected in this weekend's runoff. Writing in the Guardian he says: 
 
 Egypt's constitutional court has invalidated the recent parliamentary election but has allowed Hosni Mubarak's former PM, Ahmed Shafiq, to continue to stand for president . As the only other remaining candidate, I alone represent an unequivocal departure from the old regime that was toppled by the revolution of 2011. I was nominated and elected by constituents – parties, groups, and individuals – who marched the streets of Egypt calling for change. I was jailed by the old regime. I belong to the middle classes that were sold out by the old establishment. I hold political and social views that are shared by many in our society but were suppressed or criminalised by the old regime. I understand the ambitions, values and standards held by many mainstream Egyptians. 
 
 Syria 
 
 • A Russian-made helicopter attacked a hospital in near Aleppo, according to an eyewitness account by the Times. 
 
 As we witnessed for ourselves over three days this week, the regime's helicopters, artillery and tanks can still kill and terrify at will. Any doubt that the hospital — the best-equipped of its kind in the rebel-held areas of northern Syria, complete with four incubators for newborn babies, 25 beds and a surgical ward — had been the helicopter's intended target was dispelled 24 hours after the first attack. 
 
 • The US has acknowledged that Russian helicopters that Hillary Clinton claimed had been sent recently to the Syrian regime were, in fact, refurbished ones already owned by Damascus. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "Whether they are new or they are refurbished, the concern remains that they will be used for the exact same purpose that the current helicopters in Syria are being used, and that is to kill civilians." 
 
 • UN monitors reported the town of al-Haffeh deserted after the Syrian government claimed it had been cleansed of terrorists, the LA Times reports. 
 
 
 
 The scene was darkly reminiscent of other former rebel enclaves that Syrian forces had managed to overrun after protracted shelling and clashes, from battered urban neighborhoods such as Homs' Bab Amro district to rubble-strewn hamlets such as Mazraat al Kabir, west of the city of Hama. Al-Haffeh has become the latest Syrian district transformed into a bleak and charred ghost. 
 
 Bahrain 
 
 • One of the nine doctors whose conviction for taking part in last year's protest was quashed on Thursday, has highlighted the plight of Ali al-Akri, a senior orthopedic surgeon, who along with eight others medics was not freed. Writing in Comment is Free, Nada Dhaif says: 
 
 Far from the terror cell leader he has been branded, he was a passionate man. Always vocal, always the first to express disgust at the neglect inflicted upon those at the Pearl roundabout – to remonstrate with the authorities over a lack of ambulances. A natural leader. Clearly they wanted to single him out, he the troublemaker. 
 
 Tunisia 
 
 • The authorities have banned protests planned today by rival Islamist groups, in order to control some of the worst violence seen since last year's revolution, the BBC reports. The Ministry of Interior announced the ban in a statement.
– 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.