Egyptians went to polls on Wednesday morning to elect their new president after last year’s fall of Hosni Mubarak who had ruled for 30 years.
The polling stations opened at 8 am across the country under tight security, reported Xinhua.
About 50 million eligible voters will select one from 12 presidential candidates. Top hopefuls include former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, Islamist Aboul Fotouh, Freedom and Justice Party chairman Mohamed Morsi and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.
If no candidate gets an absolute majority, the top two vote-getters would compete in a runoff on June 16 and 17. The winner of the runoff would become Egypt’s first post-Mubarak president and will take office before July 01.
Mubarak was ousted after 18 days of demonstrations in February 2011. He assumed the presidency in October 1981, following the assassination of then president Anwar Sadat.
Mubarak is now facing a trial on charges of corruption and abuse of power and premeditated murder of peaceful protesters. He may be sentenced to death if found guilty.
Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri has declared a day off for the government employees during the election so that work in the government institutions is not affected.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Adel Abdel Hamid has also formed an operations room for monitoring the Presidential Elections.
“People can call 19303 about any problem,” he said.
Ganzouri asked citizens to participate in the election as “their duty” and urged them to accept the decision of the majority.
“I hope the election would pass peacefully. And I call on all political forces to accept the result,” he said.
Political, revolutionary forces and trade unions have also formed operations rooms while the Judges for Egypt Movement deployed 350 judges and 1,500 observers to monitor the process.
Also, 9,457 observers from 53 various human rights groups accredited by the Presidential Elections Commission would be present at the polling stations.
The Carter Centre allowed 22 international observers from 14 countries to observe the campaigning, the voting and the counting. Former US president Jimmy Carter met with Ganzouri yesterday to discuss the democratisation process in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood has also formed 300 operation rooms and 30 committees to monitor violations, and is sending 70,000 representatives to the polling stations.
Egyptians are holding their breath lest any surprises pop up during the elections.
There has been a surprise already relayed by Secretary General of the Presidential Elections Commission Hatem Bagato who said that ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his son, Gamal, have the right to vote in the Presidential Election.
Bagato, speaking to local Al-Masry Al-Youm, said that the commission has not yet received a request from them to take part in the election.
He confirmed that the commission is still studying requests from detainees to vote.
Sources at the Interior Ministry’s Prison Department said there are between 7,000 and 10,000 inmates detained in 42 prisons pending investigations that have the right to cast their votes in the presidential election on Wednesday and Thursday, provided that they apply for it.
The sources added that former president Mubarak, who is detained in a medical centre, and 44 former regime officials, held in five different prisons, have all not applied to vote.
Egyptian law allows detainees to vote as long as they have not been convicted.
It is impossible for thousands of detainees to vote because voting requires polling stations, civil workers and judges to supervise the elections, particularly as prisoners number over 3,000 in different prisons in Cairo and 1,000 in Tora Prison.