Enlarge imageBy Camilla Hall and Tom Perry
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted on Wednesday in the country’s first contested presidential elections, with President Hosni Mubarak expected to win a fifth six-year term as the leader of the Arab world’s most populous nation.
Polling stations opened across the country of 72 million at or soon after 8 a.m. (6 a.m. British time) and trickles of people chose between Mubarak and his nine rivals, most of them little-known leaders of political parties with few members.
Mubarak, 77, has won office four times since 1981 through referendums in which he was the single candidate, chosen by a parliament dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party.
He changed the system this year, after the United States and Egyptian protest groups pressed for reform, but opposition politicians say they doubt he wants real political change.
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Six hours into the 14 hours of voting, observers said they had seen some abuses or irregularities.
The opposition Wafd and Ghad parties complained that their representatives could not go into some polling stations in the provinces of Assiut, Sohag and Port Said.
Observers from the independent monitoring group Shayfeencom said ruling party organisers were bringing voters to polling stations in government cars and making them mark their ballot papers in public -- both violations of the law.
Gameela Ismail, spokeswoman for liberal opposition party candidate Ayman Nour, said the indelible ink meant to prevent double voting comes off easily if rubbed with deodorant.
Many voters said they could not find their names on the registers. "There’s a big problem. People don’t know where their names are. People’s right to vote is going to waste," said Aziz Girgis, a voter in Fayoum province southwest of Cairo.
The Presidential Election Commission unexpectedly said it would let civil society groups enter polling stations as long as they obtain a permit from the commission. For people far from Cairo, that will not be possible before voting ends.
The United States, which has been campaigning for democracy in the Middle East, said it had expressed concern to Cairo, which is friendly towards Washington and a major recipient of U.S. aid, about the lack of international monitors.
TURNOUT SEEMS LOW
About 100 members of the protest movement Kefaya (Enough), which has called for a boycott, held a demonstration in central Cairo, chanting "Down with Hosni Mubarak". Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said protests were banned but police did not intervene.
The initial turnout did not appear to be high. In some previous Egyptian elections or referendums, less than 10 percent of people have voted, according to judges and rights groups.
With 32 million registered voters and up to 10,000 polling stations, an average station would have some than 3,000 voters.
In the Nile Delta village of Kafr Atallah, 100 to 150 people had voted by 1.30 p.m., but Ahmed Abed, the presiding judge in nearby Kafr Hammam, said turnout was 50 percent.
Mubarak is expected to win by a comfortable majority, partly because of his long experience in office and his control of the state. He is widely admired for keeping Egypt out of war.
Mohamed Saqr, a 22-year-old agricultural engineer, said: "I voted for Mubarak because he’s a hero. He’s completing our journey. He’s a just man, he’s a good man."
But support for Nour, an ambitious young lawyer, is strong in his Cairo slum constituency, Bab el-Shaaria and Moski.
Faraj Khalaf Qaisi, 28, a labourer from southern Egypt, said: "I’m going to give my vote to Ayman Nour. He will change everything in the country. Look at the problem of unemployment, look at pensions. He will increase them."
But Ibrahim Kamal, 54, secretary of Nour’s Ghad (Tomorrow) Party in central Cairo, said: "There is a very low probability Nour will win. This is one man against the whole state. The campaign was only three weeks. It’s not enough".
Many Egyptians are not registered and have dismissed the presidential election as a show for foreign consumption.
Mubarak’s main rivals are two liberals -- Nour and Noman Gomaa of the Wafd Party, which dominated Egyptian politics in the early 20th century.
The rules exclude the moderate Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group in the country, because the government has never let it form a political party.
A Muslim Brotherhood leader advised people to vote but did not recommend any particular candidate.
"As you can see, the act is under way as if it’s a question of serious elections, depsite the fact they were predetermined," deputy Brotherhood leader Mohamed Habib told Reuters.
