FIRST came unsigned leaflets claiming that the candidate for the Egyptian Bloc, a secularist group, was a communist atheist. Then pamphlets accusing him of being a capitalist crony of the disgraced former regime appeared. Other rumours swirled around the parliamentary district in rural Upper Egypt where he was standing. Some said the Egyptian Bloc was backed by Freemasons and Jews. Others fingered the Coptic Church. On the morning of the vote, pick-up trucks mounted with megaphones fanned out to deliver a coup de grace. Congratulations to the Egyptian Bloc, they blared. Its candidate has been appointed a cabinet minister in Cairo and has withdrawn from the race.

Politics is a rough game everywhere. As it happens the Egyptian Bloc won that seat anyway. But one might have expected a gentler touch from the Islamist parties contesting Egypt's first free parliamentary elections in decades, which enter the second of three regional rounds of voting this week. The Islamists claim the high moral ground, saying they want a return to the principles and values of the pure faith. Yet Egypt's two main Islamist political forces, the Muslim Brotherhood and the puritan Salafists, which together look set to capture as many as two thirds of parliamentary seats, are playing electoral hardball not only against their secular opponents, but against each other too.

Workers for the Salafists' main political vehicle, the Nour Party, accuse the Brotherhood of a range of infringements, from defacing posters to illegally soliciting votes inside polling stations. During run-offs, they say, the Muslim Brothers bought the support of candidates who were eliminated in the first round, asking for their supporters' votes in exchange for "compensating" them for the cost of their failed campaigns.

The Brothers, who have longer political experience and are closer to Egypt's moderate mainstream, say the Salafists are guilty of even worse. Sermons in Salafist-controlled mosques have commanded the faithful to vote for Nour candidates or face the fires of hell. The Salafist party's posters have displayed pictures of popular television preachers, proclaiming their endorsement despite denials from the preachers themselves. In one particularly hard-fought race the Salafists, stealing a page from the Brothers' book, mounted an election-day campaign claiming falsely that their Brotherhood rival had died.

Perhaps such tactics should be expected. Egyptian politicians of all stripes cut their teeth during six decades of veiled dictatorship. Back then, the ever-ruling party of government stuffed ballot boxes, sent thugs to beat up opponents, or simply locked the polling stations and sent everyone home. Long repressed, Egypt's Islamists understandably see the elections as a unique chance to assert their dominance. Their secular opponents are inexperienced, weak and divided. The government bodies meant to oversee elections seem more keen on getting the job done than doing it properly.