Egyptians flocked to the polls yesterday for a first post-revolution election, making a mostly orderly and joyous start to their transition to democracy after a week of violence and political crisis.
Ten months since the end of 30 years of autocratic rule by Hosni Mubarak, ousted by popular protests in one of the seminal events of the Arab Spring, up to 40 million voters are being asked to choose a new Parliament.
“It was no use to vote before. Our voices were completely irrelevant,” Mona Abdel Moneim, one of several women who said they were voting for the first time, said in the Shubra district of Cairo.
The highly complex procedure to elect a full assembly will end in March.
Voting for the lower house of Parliament takes place in three stages beginning yesterday in the main cities of Cairo, Alexandria and other areas, with the moderate Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood expected to triumph.
After two days of voting in the first stage of the elections for the lower Parliament, other cities and regions will follow on December 14 and January 3.
After these, another round of voting will take place from January 29 for the upper house of Parliament, and presidential elections are to be held by no later than the end of June next year.
The poll was endangered last week as unrest gripped the country, but military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi stuck defiantly to the schedule and called for a large turnout.
Voting passed off peacefully and the opening hours of polling booths were extended to 9 p.m. to enable the thousands who waited for hours in long queues to cast their ballots.
The formerly banned Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate Islamist group, is widely expected to emerge as the largest power but without an outright majority when results for the lower Parliament are published on January 13.
Hardline Islamists, secular parties and groups representing the interests of the former Mubarak regime are all expected to win seats, raising the prospect of a highly fragmented and ideologically split Parliament.