{"id":1072,"date":"2011-11-28T08:30:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T08:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/11\/egyptians-begin-voting-in-first-post-mubarak-poll\/"},"modified":"2011-11-28T08:30:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T08:30:14","slug":"egyptians-begin-voting-in-first-post-mubarak-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/11\/28\/egyptians-begin-voting-in-first-post-mubarak-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptians begin voting in first post-Mubarak poll"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

CAIRO (AFP) \u2013 Egyptians began voting Monday in the first elections since the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak who was ousted in February in one of the most important moments of the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n

At the Omar Makram school, in the working class central Cairo neighbourhood of Shubra, men and women queued in separate lines before the opening of polling stations at 8:00 am (0600G).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was no use to vote before. Our voices were completely irrelevant,\u201d Mona Abdel Moneim, one of several women who said they were voting for the first time in their lives, told AFP.<\/p>\n

Once in, the voters were told to wait because the judge supervising the balloting was running late \u2014 an administrative delay witnessed at several other polling stations by AFP reporters.<\/p>\n

In the upmarket Cairo neighbourhood of Zamalek, several hundred lined up for over an hour, some resting on chairs, before their polling station opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sick and I wasn\u2019t planning on coming, but what happened recently made me feel that I had to vote. For 30 years we were silent. It\u2019s enough,\u201d said Samira, 65.<\/p>\n

Mariam, a 37-year-old, said: \u201cThe parliamentary election is not the end, it\u2019s the beginning\u2026 It\u2019s very important for me to vote, it\u2019s very important for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Army and police forces were discreetly deployed around polling stations, but some voters wanted to provide extra protection.<\/p>\n

Outside a polling station in Shubra, 10 members of the influential Muslim Brotherhood huddled together as a \u201cpopular committee\u201d to protect voters.<\/p>\n

One of them, 41-year-old Arabic teacher Ibrahim Mustafa, said their presence was a reassurance, but they wouldn\u2019t fight back if attacked. \u201cNo, we will reason with them,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

In Alexandria, Egypt\u2019s second-biggest city and a major port on the Mediterranean, about 200 people queued outside a polling station at a girls\u2019 school in the Al-Raml district on the seafront.<\/p>\n

Again, administrative delays prevented the start of voting on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many parties contesting this election, so the best thing is for Egyptians to participate,\u201d Amin, a 55-year-old physician, told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, there was nobody voting because it was only one party,\u201d he said, referring to parliamentary elections in November and December of 2010.<\/p>\n

Yussuf, a 25-year-old software engineer, added: \u201cI\u2019m voting for the future of Egypt. This is the first free election in our country. I hope it will be the first fair election.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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