Egypt will hold presidential elections on Wednesday and Thursday, 15 months after authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted from the presidential post in a popular revolt in February 2011.
The polls are expected to mark the nation's transition from military to civilian rule.
Thirteen candidates, including Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood movement and Salafist parties, as well as secular candidates, are running in the polls. If none of them wins a majority in the first round of the elections, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff vote next month.
Opinion polls have singled out the top five presidential candidates, each of whom has a chance to make it to the runoff.
The candidates are: former Arab League secretary general and former Egyptian foreign minister Amr Moussa, 75, former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, independent Islamist Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, Muslim Brotherhood representative Mohammed Mursi and Socialist Hamdeen Sabbahi.
Moussa, who has portrayed himself as an experienced politician with influence on the international arena, is supported by those who are for stability and succession. He insists he was in opposition during Mubarak’s rule, but critics describe him as a remnant of the Mubarak regime.
Shafiq, 70, also former Air Force commander, pledged to ensure security in the country soon in case of his election. But last year’s popular uprising’s supporters may fail to vote for him due to his prime ministerial post in the last days of the Mubarak government.
Aboul-Fotouh, 60, is a moderate Islamist with liberal views. In 2011 he was dismissed from the Muslim Brotherhood’s ranks due to his own presidential ambitions.
Mursi, 60, an engineer by profession, who was a reserve candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, came to the foreground after Muslim Brotherhood key candidate Khairat al-Shater was disqualified.
Sabahi, 57, leader of the nationalist Dignity party, who is running as in independent candidate, has no connections to the Mubarak regime and is popular among many youth movements and working class. He is considered “an alternative candidate” for those who favor neither Islamists (Mursi and Aboul-Fotouh) nor Mubarak regime followers (Moussa and Shafiq). His campaign slogan was “one of us.”
More than 50 million Egyptians are eligible to cast their ballots to elect a new leader, and at least two-thirds of them are expected to take part in the vote, according to public polls. In line with Egyptian laws, refusal to go to polls without a reasonable excuse is punished with a $15 fine.
At least 14,500 Egyptian judges and more than 65,000 civil servants will monitor the elections. For the first time in the country’s history, Egyptian and foreign NGOs have also been allowed to send their representatives to observe the vote.
Some 300,000 police and military officers will be deployed across the country during the vote. Egyptian laws ban both police and army personnel from voting in presidential elections.
