Egyptians today voted for a second day today in an election that Islamists hope will bring them closer to power even though the army generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak have yet to step aside.
The parliamentary poll, the first since a popular uprising toppled Mubarak in February, has confounded fears of violence after a week of riots against army rule in which 42 people were killed.
A member of Egypt's ruling military council said today he expected turnout in the first stage of a parliamentary election to exceed 70 per cent.
Polling began yesterday, and the first round of voting is being held over two days. The staggered vote will be spread over six weeks.
Unidentified men wielding sticks today surged through Cairo's Tahrir Square which has been occupied by protesters demanding an end to army rule, witnesses said.
The website of the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm daily said there were scuffles after some people tried to expel street vendors, who have been serving protesters camped out in Tahrir for more than 10 days.
"There is no actual or definitive estimate, but I assure you that, until now, it will go above 70 per cent. I hope it will reach more than 80 percent by the end of the day," Gen Ismail Atman told Al Jazeera television.
"What we saw yesterday and today was something that exceeds what could be imagined and exceeds the whole world's expectations," he said.
Independent election monitors said there had been a high turnout and one official, representing a number of monitoring groups, said that it could easily rise above 50 per cent.
A cabinet statement said the turnout in expatriate voting had reached "60 to 70 per cent of the total registered voters according to results received from around 100 embassies". An estimated eight million Egyptians work or study abroad.
The Muslim Brotherhood, banned but unofficially tolerated under Mubarak, hopes its grassroots organisation will help it sweep into parliament but it is not clear how much influence the assembly can wield while the generals remain in power.
Armed with laptops and leaflets, party workers of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing and its Islamist rivals approached voters to guide them through the complex balloting system and nudge them towards their candidates.
The ruling army council assumed Mubarak's formidable presidential powers when it eased him from office on February 11th. It has promised to hand over to an elected president by July, but may seek to retain military perks and power behind the scenes.
If the staggered election process goes smoothly over the next six weeks, the new parliament will nevertheless enjoy a popular legitimacy that the generals lack. It may try to assert itself after rubber-stamping Mubarak's decisions for 30 years.
"Real politics will be in the hands of the parliament," said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian political analyst.
The next assembly could compete for authority with Kamal Ganzouri, an economist named last week by the army council to form a cabinet, which he hopes to unveil by Thursday. Mr Ganzouri (78) was prime minister under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999.
The United States, which has urged its longtime allies in Egypt's military to make way swiftly for civilian rule, said early reports on the first day of voting were "quite positive."
Many Egyptians had feared election violence after last week's bloodshed when frustration against army rule boiled over, as police fought repeated battles with protesters in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square, the heart of the anti-Mubarak revolt.
Some Egyptians yearn for a return to stability, uneasy about the impact of political turmoil on an economy heading towards a crisis sure to worsen the hardship of impoverished millions.
Others worry that resurgent Islamist parties may dominate political life, mould Egypt's next constitution and threaten social freedoms in what is already a deeply conservative nation of 80 million people whose 10 per cent Coptic Christian minority complains of discrimination from the Muslim majority.
Reuters