By Dina Zayed
CAIRO (Reuters) - Opposition parties secured just four of the 88 seats up for grabs in an election to parliament's upper house this week and the ruling party swept most of the rest in a vote rights groups said was marred by abuses.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which ran candidates as independents to skirt an official ban, won no seats even though it controls 20 percent of the lower house of parliament, according to results announced by the official election body on Thursday.
The outcome of the vote was never in doubt but the process was being watched to see how much space the authorities would give opponents before a lower house election later this year and a presidential poll in 2011.
