The vote offers Egyptians the first real chance to choose who represents them. During Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, intimidation, ballot stuffing and graft ensured landslide wins for his ruling party.
No one expects a return to that kind of routine rigging but, with everything to play for, the gloves have come off before staggered voting starts on November 28.
Party agents are defacing campaign posters, disrupting rallies with verbal attacks on their rivals and distributing bogus flyers ridiculing opponents.
Liberal parties accuse the well-funded Muslim Brotherhood of spreading more than its usual largesse to win votes. Many expect it to form one of the biggest blocs in parliament although analysts question whether it can secure a majority.
The group, respected for its track record of charitable work, has been handing out meat to prospective voters.
In one village, the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party is offering half-price medicines and sponsored a football match, newspaper al-Dostour reported.
Its rivals rail against what they see as thinly-veiled vote buying by the Brotherhood, employing the kind of tactics Mubarak’s party candidates were once derided for using. But some liberal parties are involved in such offers too.