Egypt has banned two prominent political figures from leaving the country because they are under investigation for allegedly inciting deadly violence last month, state news agency MENA said Tuesday. The ban by the state prosecutor applies to Ayman Nur, founder of the Al-Ghad party and a presidential hopeful, and Mamduh Hamza, a prominent figure among the youth who spearheaded the popular revolt that led to the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in February. MENA did not say what either of the two men were thought to have done. On Dec. 16, clashes broke out between security forces and protesters holding a sit-in outside the cabinet office to protest the appointment of Kamal Al-Ganzuri, a former Mubarak stalwart, as interim prime minister. Seventeen protesters were killed. The clashes were the bloodiest since five days of protests in November killed at least 42 people just ahead of the first general election since Mubarak stepped down. Nur unsuccessfully stood against Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election. He was later sentenced to five years in jail for fraud and falsification of documents, charges he denied, and was released in 2009 for health reasons. Other activists are expected to face the investigators Wednesday. Former President Carter praises Egypt elections Former President Jimmy Carter Tuesday dismissed concerns about the success of Islamist parties in Egypt's first elections since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, because it represents the will of the Egyptian people. Carter's Atlanta-based Carter Center has sent 40 observers to monitor Egypt's staggered parliamentary elections since voting started in late November, the freest and fairest in decades. Carter said his organization was “very pleased” with the conduct of the elections so far. “There have been some problems in general, but the will of the people has been expressed accurately,” Carter told reporters at polling station in a girls school in the Cairo neighborhood of Rod Al-Farag. Some voters in a run-off election for the third round to elect the lower house of parliament stopped to snap photos of the former president with their mobile phones.
