Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood is leading in the opening round of the country's first post-revolution parliamentary elections, press reports said on Wednesday, November 30.

Early indications suggest that the Islamist movement's Freedom and Justice Party, as well as parties belonging to the hardline Salafi movements, were ahead in six provinces, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

According to the independent daily Al-Shorouk, in Cairo "the first signs show the Freedom and Justice Party with 47 percent of the votes, and 22 percent for the Egyptian bloc," a coalition of secular parties, AFP reported.

The vote on Monday and Tuesday in Cairo, Alexandria and other areas was the first of three stages of an election for a new lower house of parliament. The rest of the country follows next month and in January.