Despite long lines and confusing rules, Egyptians have turned out in droves to vote in the country's first elections since the end of Hosni Mubarak's decades old regime.?
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Past elections in Egypt have typically been chaotic and violent, while also being mostly pointless due to Mubarak's usual vote-rigging or simple ignoring of results. So far there have been no major reports of violence, despite the fact that a lot of the chaos is still there. Many polling places were not ready to open at 9:00 a.m. as they were supposed to, ballots have been misplaced or misdirected, parties continued last-minute campaigning (which is illegal), and even those who did get to vote were having trouble with the confusing ballot and rules.?More the 50 political parties and thousands of candidates are?competing?for less than 200 seats in the lower house of Parliament. If you can make sense of this plan, you're better than most.
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And this is just the first stage of a months-long process meant to create a new government ? that may not even have any real power when it comes together, as the military caretakers continue to assert their dominance over the country. Protests have been raging for more than a week, as the military still has not set a date for the presidential election.
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Despite all those concerns and the logistical problems that are popping up turnout is still quite high and people are eager to cast their votes, after years of dictatorship.?If you're interested in live updates, some of the reporters on the ground who gather news from all over, include The Wall Street Journal's?Tamer El-Ghobashy, CNN's Ben Wedeman, McClatchy's Hallah Allam, and of course Al Jazeera.
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