Egypt holds landmark elections

Logistical problems plagued many polling stations on Monday but the first day of voting passed mostly peacefully.
Egyptians are voting to create the first democratically elected assembly in the country’s history.
The queues formed early and quickly at polling stations across Egypt on Monday, as voters cast their ballots in the first parliamentary elections since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak in February.

In the capital, Cairo, thousands of voters flocked to schools in the neighbourhoods of Zamalek, Nasr City and Maadi — among others — well before polling booths opened at 8am, to stake their place in line.
Logistical problems continued to plague many polling stations across the country, with some voters reporting that stations had not opened more than an hour after the time scheduled, as ink used to mark voters’ fingers had not arrived.

“The two problems are this, one, ballot papers arriving very late, secondly, judges are arriving very late and some not even turning up,” Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros, reporting from Shubra, said.
Additionally, a ban on campaigning at polling stations appeared to have been violated, with members of parties handing out pamphlets and banners steps away from the ballot box.

The government did not release official figures on voter turnout, but observers from the Muslim Brotherhood said that turnout was between 30 and 32 percent in the nine governorates which voted. In Cairo, turnout was around 27 percent, the group said. Despite the problems, many voters expressed enthusiasm for what they said they hoped would be Egypt’s first truly free and fair election.

In Assiut, one of the most significant governorates in the Upper Egypt region, there appeared to be an exceptionally high turnout by the standards of the country’s previous votes. “The lines have not stopped outside the polling centres,” Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh reported from Assiut. “If we’re judging by the turnout, this has been by all accounts a success.”

Women were turning out in high numbers, unusual for such a conservative region, she said.
There were no signs of violence or coercion, she reported, but there were campaign violations. Poor organisation by authorities was also an issue, she said.

Voters in the northern city of Alexandria began arriving at polling stations not long after sunrise. Armed navy troops in blue helmets guarded the stations, and unarmed police officers directed voters once they entered.

Poll workers opened the stations shortly after 9am, around an hour after the voting was scheduled to begin, but there was no sign of anger among the calm crowds, who seemed anxious only to get inside.
Across central Alexandria, brief downpours did not seem to dampen turnout, with long lines of men and women snaking out of nearly every polling place. — Al Jazeera.