LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Analyst suggests that the Brotherhood could come away with a clean majority of the seats in the full Parliament in lieu of the plurality indicated by previous results.

The Brotherhood's party, Freedom and Justice, began Tuesday with nearly 50 percent of the seats awarded in the first two rounds of the vote, winning roughly 40 percent of the seats allocated by party voting. The final nine governorates voting included the historic Brotherhood strongholds of Gharbiya and Daqahliyya in the Delta.

Final tallies are still uncertain as 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.

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 in an interview.

The Brotherhood insists 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. The party may also want to share the responsibility to be a difficult period of adjustment for the Egyptian state and economy.

Winning a clear majority would enable the Brotherhood's party to govern without forming a coalition. Removing the necessity of such a coalition government would lessen the influence of the partners in any alliance as well as any other parties outside the coalition.

Such a gesture would reduce the power of the ultraconservative Islamists who have come in second-place in the first two rounds of the voting, winning as much as 25 percent of the seats by most estimates. Various liberal parties, led by the business-friendly Free Egyptians and the left-leaning Social Democrats 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 ultraconservatives, or Salafis, have 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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