Over 52 million Egyptians will vote to choose their President in the first-ever competitive elections to be held today.
The voters will to choose from 12 candidates, Islamists and secularists, in the two-day elections.
If no candidate gets an absolute majority, the top two vote-getters would compete in a runoff on June 16 and 17. The winner of the runoff would become Egypt's first post-Mubarak President and will take office before July 1.
Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri has declared a day off for the government employees during the election so that work in the government institutions is not affected.
The Cabinet met today to discuss the monitoring of the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Adel Abdel Hamid has also formed an operations room for the purpose.
"People can call 19303 about any problem," he said.
Ganzouri asked citizens to participate in the election as "their duty" and urged them to accept the decision of the majority.
"I hope the election would pass peacefully. And I call on all political forces to accept the result," he said.
Political, revolutionary forces and trade unions have also formed operations rooms while the Judges for Egypt Movement deployed 350 judges and 1,500 observers to monitor the process.
Also, 9,457 observers from 53 various human rights groups accredited by the Presidential Elections Commission would be present at the polling stations. The Carter Center allowed 22 international observers from 14 countries to observe the campaigning, the voting and the counting. Former US President Jimmy Carter met with Ganzouri yesterday to discuss the democratisation process in Egypt.
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