On the other hand, political parties traded accusations on the second day of the third round of Egypt’s People’s Assembly elections on Wednesday, January 4, 2012, as leaflets handed out in the western Egypt governorate of Mersa Matrouh judged that anyone voting for the liberal Egyptian Bloc would be considered kāfir (infidel in Islam).

Sources said the leaflets were most probably handed out by the Ansār al-Sunnah al-Muhammadīyah (Supporters of the Prophet Muhammad’s Tradition) group.

Striking back with another leaflet, the Free Egyptians Party (FEP) criticized the use of religion in propaganda and lodged a complaint against the Salafī al-Nūr (Light) Party, accusing it of violating the ban on electoral campaigning prior to voting.

For its part, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood group, (Arabic site) (English site) accused several parties of using weapons, including machine-guns, to prevent arrival of voters and the FJP’s representatives to the polling stations in more than one place in the Upper Egyptian governorate of al-Minya. [Author Not Mentioned, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Jan. 5, p. 1]