The day first of Egyptian poll day ended peacefully

Cairo’s Tahir square which has been the epicenter of mass protests and violence until a few days ago saw a remarkable change on Monday – voters heading for polling booths to cast their votes peacefully on the first day of the three-stage parliamentary elections. Such was the turnout for Monday’s election in Cairo and elsewhere that the military administration in Egypt had to extend the voting hour by two hours. The mood of the people was jubilant as they marked the historic moment by casting their ballots for democracy.

More than 50 registered parties and thousand independent candidates are contesting the Parliamentary elections. Voting on Monday and Tuesday are going to witness participation of nine major provinces out of a total of 27 provinces. The rest would get their chance in three separate stages until January next year. The next stage of elections will be on December 14th and the final stage is scheduled to be on January 3rd. Over the next few weeks, approximately 50 million Egyptians are going to elect 508 representatives for the lower house.

In some areas, complaints were reported of ballots arriving late, delay in opening of polling booths, some sporadic shooting and election-related violence as well as security shortage. Otherwise, the first day of voting has largely been successful.