Egyptians head to polls for 2-day election runoffs

Egyptians again headed to the polls Monday for two days of runoffs in their first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a balloting in which Islamist parties already captured an overwhelming majority of the votes in the first round.         

The runoffs are unlikely to change the Islamists' gains, which have dealt a huge blow to liberals behind the uprising that toppled Mubarak 10 months ago.         

The runoff races have fundamentalist Islamist candidates contesting each other and also secular candidates for the remainder of the 52 seats that were up for grabs in the first found.

There are still two more rounds of voting staggered over the coming weeks.           

According to results released on Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party garnered 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast for party lists. The ultraconservative Salafists' Al-Nour Party, a more hard-line Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent, while the secular Egyptian Bloc won 13.4 percent of the votes.