Egypt's top Islamist party says extends election gains

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Islamist party the Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday it had won two thirds of individual seats up for grabs in the opening round of Egypt's first post-Mubarak election.

"The FJP has won 36 seats out of 54, or 66.6 per cent of seats," it announced on its Facebook page, referring to its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

The group, banned for decades during the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, was also the leader in a separate vote that will see seats allocated based on ballots cast for parties rather than for individuals.

In the party vote, which will see more than a 100 seats distributed, it won 36.6 per cent while the hardline Islamic fundamentalist party Al-Nur came second with 24.4 per cent.

Official results for the individual vote have not yet been released. The FJP's crushing victory in the individual seats and pre-eminence in the party voting sets it up to become the leading power in the 498-lower new house of parliament.

Only a third of districts have voted so far, with the rest of the country heading to the polls in a further two waves on December 14 and in January.

The prospect of an Islamist-dominated parliament raises fears among liberals about civil liberties, women's rights and religious freedom in a country with the Middle East's largest Christian minority.

The Brotherhood stressed throughout campaigning that Islamic values were compatible with democracy and that it was in favour of individual freedoms and working with other non-Islamist political parties.

Al-Nur, a hardline Salafist group, advocates a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt's liberal movement emerged with 29.3 per cent of the party vote in the first round, but it is highly fragmented and split between six different coalitions.

The elections are the first since the toppling of Mubarak in February after an 18-day uprising centred in iconic Tahrir Square against his autocratic rule.