Polling stations opened on Wednesday for Egypt's first presidential elections, with President Hosni Mubarak expected to win a fifth six-year term as the leader of the Arab world's most populous nation. At Nubar middle school in central Cairo, the Mubarak campaign's representative was the first to vote after the station opened at 8 a.m. (5 a.m. GMT). In the first 45 minutes, about a dozen people had voted and had their fingers marked with indelible ink to prevent double voting, CNN reported. President Mubarak, his wife Suzanne and his politician son Gamal, voted in the northeast Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, where Mubarak lives. They too dipped their fingers in the ink. Mubarak, 77, faces nine contenders but most of them are little known and their parties have few members. Thirty-two million of the 72 million Egyptians are registered to vote. Mubarak's main rivals are two liberals -- Ayman Nour of the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party and Noman Gomaa of the Wafd Party.
