Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has taken an overwhelming early lead in his country's first-ever contested presidential race, an election commission official said today, in a ballot marred by low turnout and widespread reports of voter intimidation.
An Egyptian votes in the Egyptian presidential elections yesterday in Cairo.
With all of the votes counted in half of the country's polling stations, Mubarak had at least 70 percent of the vote, said the electoral commission official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge results.
The remaining votes were shared between the two principal challengers, Ayman Nour of the al-Ghad Party and Noaman Gomaa of the Wafd Party, the official said.
A Mubarak win has long been forecast, and for many, the process of yesterday's election was more important than the results. The poll tested the government's commitment to reform and the US push for greater democracy in the Middle East.
The government had promised a clean vote, but polling was marred by widespread reports of pressure and intimidation for voters to support Mubarak.
The election also suffered from low turnout. The authorities did not give an official figure, but the electoral commision official said turnout was about 30 per cent. The same percentage was given Thursay by an official in Mubarak's campaign headquarters, who also spoke anonymously. Several independent monitoring groups said during Wednesday's polling that turnout appeared poor.
If that figure holds, and it turns out that 70 per cent of the country's 32 million registered voters did not take part, it would indicate that most Egyptians did not have much faith in the election to vote.
Opposition party members, human rights monitors and citizens claimed that some poll officials in Luxor and other towns instructed voters to choose Mubarak. In Cairo and Alexandria, supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party promised food or money to poor people if they voted for Mubarak, voters said.
Nour, the leading opposition candidate, charged the elections "are not fair at all," and vowed to reject rigged results.
The government played down reports of problems, saying they did not diminish what they called a major step toward democracy.