Egyptians voted yesterday in their first election since a popular revolt ousted former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, amid fears the generals who replaced the deposed leader would try to cling to power.
In the nine months since the end of Mubarak’s 30-year rule, political change in Egypt has faltered, with the military apparently more focused on preserving its power and privilege than fostering any democratic transformation.
Frustration erupted last week into violent protests that cost 42 lives and forced the army council to promise civilian rule by July.
In Cairo, Alexandria and other areas, voters stood patiently in long lines, many of them debating Egypt’s political future that for the first time they have a chance to shape.
About 17 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the first two-day phase of three rounds of polling for the lower house, which will be completed on Jan. 11.
Oppressed under Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties stood aloof from those challenging army rule, unwilling to let anything obstruct elections that might open a route to political power previously beyond their reach.
The US and its European allies, which have long valued Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, have urged the generals to step aside swiftly, apparently seeing their grip on power as provoking instability in the most populous Arab nation.
Tents of protesters demanding an immediate end to army rule still stood in Tahrir Square, but after heavy overnight rain, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak revolt was far from crowded.
There were no reports of serious election-day violence. However, scuffles among women voters erupted at one Alexandria polling station that opened late because ballot papers had not arrived.
In Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, men and women voted in separate lines. Campaign posters for Islamist parties, such as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Salafi Nour Party and the moderate Wasat Party festooned streets. Troops outnumbered police guarding polling stations.
The segregated voting for men and women in Alexandria and many other places was a reminder of the conservative religious fabric of Egypt’s mainly Muslim society, where Coptic Christians comprise 10 percent of a population of more than 80 million.
A host of parties have been formed since the removal of Mubarak, who routinely rigged elections to ensure that his now-dissolved National Democratic Party dominated parliament.
Under a complex electoral system, voters pick both party lists and individual candidates.
The Brotherhood has formidable advantages that include a disciplined organization, name recognition among a welter of little-known parties and a record of opposing Mubarak long before the popular revolt that swept him from power.
Brotherhood organizers stood near many polling stations with laptops to help people find where they should vote, printing out a paper with the FJP candidate’s name and symbol on the back.
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