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Egypt

Turnout high in Cairo for first Egyptian elections since Mubarak

Egyptians began voting on Monday morning in the first elections since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah
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Turnout appeared high in the capital, but many polling stations opened late due to administrative problems ranging from the late arrival of judges supervising the procedure, to a lack of ballot papers.

In the upmarket Cairo neighbourhood of Zamalek, several hundreds lined up for over an hour before their polling station opened.

"I am sick and I wasn't planning on coming, but what happened recently made me feel that I had to vote. For 30 years we were silent. It's enough," said Samira, an elderly woman queueing with her daughter.

In villages surrounding the city of Luxor in southern Egypt, residents also reported long queues forming.

By late morning, the vote appeared to be passing off mostly peacefully, as the army and police forces discreetly deployed around polling stations.

Amin, a physician, said Egyptians should participate in the election, which looked in doubt last week amid calls for a boycott and fresh violence which left 42 dead, when pro-democracy activists clashed with the interim military leaders who have been in control since the fall Hosni Mubarak.

In Tahrir Square, the epicentre of protests, anti-military diehards said they had no confidence in the process and preferred to stay in the square to keep pushing for an end to military rule.

 

 

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