The Muslim Brotherhood, whose political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, secured the lion’s share of votes in the first round of the ongoing parliamentary elections in Egypt, expressed gratitude to the constituents who voted for their candidates and list.

After the official announcement of the first round’s results, the Brotherhood issued a statement to thank their devotees for their faith in the group. It reads: “In a previous statement we issued a thank you note to the Egyptian people for the civilised way they lined up for hours to cast their votes and choose their parliamentary representatives.

“Today, we have to thank you again for your trust, and let you know we feel how heavy our responsibility is. God willing, we will be up to it and be able to serve our people and country.”

Leaders of Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the leading player of the Democratic Alliance, announced on Thursday that their party had received almost 40 per cent of the votes in the first round of Egypt’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary polls. That's up from estimates made months ago, which thought that the Muslim Brotherhood would receive 30 per cent of the votes.

Preliminary results also show that Salafist parties – which espouse an ultra-conservative brand of Islam – were the main rivals to FJP candidates, receiving no less than 20 per cent of the vote.

Islamist parties in general may have captured as many as 120 seats out of a total of 168 seats up for grabs in the first stage.