Excited, anxious, even a little confused, Egyptians voted Wednesday in the country's first free presidential elections, with Islamists and secularists vying for power with competing visions of an Egypt liberated from Hosni Mubarak's iron grip. Long queues of people, many in a festive mood, wound their way outside polling stations across the country throughout the day after polls opened. “It's a beautiful day for Egypt,” said Nehmedo Abdel Hadi, who was voting at the Omar Makram school in Cairo's Shubra neighborhood. “Now I feel this is my country and I have dignity,” said the 46-year-old woman, who wears a full-face veil. In the leafy Mohandesseen neighborhood, Rania, wearing gym clothes and a ponytail under her baseball cap, was at the front of the line. “It's the first time in Egypt's history we choose our president,” she said, preferring to keep her choice “a secret between me and my ballot box.” More than 50 million eligible voters have been called to choose one of 12 candidates wrestling to succeed ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Voting over two days is taking place at 13,000 polling stations, with initial results expected on Sunday. A senior Interior Ministry official said police were on standby across the country and helping soldiers secure polling stations. Pollsters say the large number of voters undecided between candidates reflecting radically different trends, and the novelty of a free presidential vote, make Wednesday's election almost impossible to call. In the port city of Suez, one voter in a queue said the landmark election showed that Egypt was moving away from its authoritarian past. “No matter who people vote for, this vote expresses a rejection of the old regime and shows Egyptians are ready for a new chapter,” said the voter Ahmed Kilani, a lawyer in his 50s. At a school in the Dokki neighborhood in Cairo, Rania Mohammed, 37, wearing a grey trouser suit and a light scarf tied back to reveal her pearl earrings, was second in line on the women's side. Fifteen months after the fall of president Hosni Mubarak in last year's popular uprising, she was still trying to make up her mind who to vote for. Despite her last-minute indecision, she said she was excited.
