adminproof of popular support for their democratic transition plan.
Long lines formed at polling stations for a second day of voting yesterday and the head of the election commission, Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim, proclaimed turnout so far had been “massive and unexpected”. But he did not give figures.
The turnout boosts the military council after protests that erupted on November 19 in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other cities, denouncing the ruling generals and demanding they transfer power immediately to a civilian authority.
At times, the protests drew more than 100 000 and a crackdown by security forces killed more than 40 people over nine days.
Major-General Mukhtar al-Mulla, a member of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said the vote for a parliament “responds to all those who were skeptical that elections will take place on time.” He called the turnout “unprecedented in the history of the Arab world’s parliamentary life”.
Despite the turmoil leading up to the vote, Egyptians poured out to participate, eager to cast ballots in the country’s first free and fair elections in living memory. The voting was still going strong on Tuesday, the second and final day of the first round of the elections, with long lines forming again at polling stations in the capital Cairo and other cities.
The size of the crowds suggested Egyptians are more concerned with exercising their vote and shaping the new parliament than with the protesters’ warnings that elections have little legitimacy under the domination of the military, which took power after Mubarak’s February 11 fall.
The generals had sought to isolate the protesters by insisting they did not represent the broader public. – AP.
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