Egyptians enter second day of parliamentary elections

Day Two of the Egyptian elections looks promising after the first day passed peacefully Egypt’s voting continued for a second day on Tuesday, after a high turnout and peaceful atmosphere on Monday in a parliamentary election that could loosen the army’s grip on power and sweep long-banned Islamists into the legislature.
Some judges monitoring the election process were held hostage in polling stations by voters angry at the slow pace of the ballots on the first day. There were also reports of parties contravening election law by campaigning in and around polling stations but Amnesty International said there were no human rights violations.
Egyptians swarmed to the ballot box peacefully in their first election since a popular revolt toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, confounding fears of violence after a week of riots in which 42 people were killed. Up to 40 million voters are being asked to choose a new parliament.
 "It was no use to vote before. Our voices were completely irrelevant," Mona Abdel Moneim, one of several women who said they were voting for the first time, told AFP in the Shubra district of Cairo.
Polling stations in nine provinces across Egypt closed at 9pm on Monday after a two-hour extension due to the high turnout in the first stage of the country's historic parliamentary elections.
"Today, nearly 1,000 voters cast their votes here," said a judge at a polling station specially for women in downtown Cairo on Monday evening. "No violations were reported."
The Muslim Brotherhood  published a breakdown of voter turnout on Monday "according to preliminary estimates", putting the overall participation rate at 30 per cent to 32 per cent. The appaarent breakdowns by governorate are as follows:
    Alexandria 30%
    Assiut 30%
    Cairo 25%
    Damietta 40%
    Fayoum 35%
    Kafr El-Sheikh 40%
    Port-Said 45%
    Luxor 30%
    Port-Said 45%
    The Red Sea 25%.
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces, head of the Military Council, visited 'Al Qobba al-Fedaweya', to follow the course of the parliamentary elections closely, in addition to check out the security situation at the polling stations, and organising of the voting process.
Maj. Gen. Ismail Etman, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), emphasised that  Tantawi was following up the electoral process, from the operating room of the Armed Forces.
By Monday evening, many electoral workers were still busy receiving voters despite a slight decline in the turnout. Abdel Ibrahim, chairman of the High Judicial Elections Commission, told reporters late Monday that the voting was smooth except that three polling stations were closed due to clashes.
Voters are expected to go to 3,809 polling stations in the nine governorates in the first stage. Around 2,357 independent candidates will contest 57 seats, while 1, 452 party candidates will compete for 112 seats.
Voters in nine provinces, including Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria and Assiut are voting in the first stage of a process extending until March.
The 508-member People's Assembly polls are held over three stages, each with a run-off one week after the vote. The whole vote will be finished on January 10 and the final results will be announced by January 13
Voting for the upper house, or Shura Assembly, of parliament takes place after that and the presidential election is supposed to be held by mid-2012.
Meanwhile, a group of customs employees at the Suez seaport have revealed that the Egyptian Ministry of Interior is in the process of receiving 21 tonnes of tear gas from the US.
The claim was supported by Medhat Eissa, an activist in the coastal city of Suez, who provided documents he says he obtained from a group of employees at the Suez Canal customs. The employees have been subjected to questioning for their refusal to allow an initial seven ton shipment of the US-made tear gas canisters enter the port.
A group of employees at the Adabiya Seaport in Suez have confirmed, with the documents to prove it, that a three-stage shipment of in total 21 tonnes of tear gas canisters is on course for the port from the American port of Wilmington.
Employees say the container ship Danica, carrying seven tons of tear-gas canisters made by the American company Combined Systems, has already arrived at the port, with two similar shipments from the same company expected to arrive within the week.
 The Tahrir movement, named after the square where protests began against Mubarak, is divided over whether to take part in the elections and lend legitimacy to the military rulers.
By contrast, the Muslim Brotherhood has supported a poll from which it expects to capitalise.
Many protesters occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square have boycotted the vote. There had been fears the vote might be delayed after deadly protests against the interim military rulers who replaced Mubarak.
 Mubarak, who is on trial for murder and corruption along with his two sons, is expected to be following events from a Cairo military hospital where he is reportedly being treated for cancer.
The protesters fear SCAF, which is overseeing the transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian rule, is trying to retain power.
The military will retain executive power for now, but the election will resuscitate a parliament that had acted as no more than a rubber stamp for Mubarak, who choked political life during his 30-year tenure.
The new parliament is expected to have a strong Islamist bloc led by the Muslim Brotherhood, liberal groupings and some reconditioned elements of Hosni Mubarak's old party.
Much remains unclear about how the new parliament will function and whether it will be able to resolve a standoff with the armed forces over how much power they will retain under a new constitution to be written next year.
Official results from the first phase of voting should be announced on Wednesday, but the final make-up of the lower and upper house of parliament will not be clear until March.
“The Muslim Brotherhood are the people who have stood by us when times were difficult,” said Ragya el-Said, a 47-year-old lawyer in Alexandria, a stronghold for the Brotherhood. “We have a lot of confidence in them.”
“I have hope this time,” Amal Fathy, a 50-year-old government employee who wears the Islamic veil, as she patiently waited in Cairo to vote, told The Associated Press. “I may not live long enough to see change, but my grandchildren will.”