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'Friendly' military forces to be deployed at polling stations starting Thursday Al-Ahram's Arabic news portal reports that military forces will start securing polling stations two days before the runoff vote gets underway
The Egyptian armed forces will start to secure polling stations on Thursday, two days before the beginning of the runoff vote in Egypt'spresidential elections, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic news portal, which quoted an anonymous source saying "using force is a measure of last resort" for security personnel. The unnamed source said: "Securing the [first round of the] presidential elections and the parliamentary polls [last winter] was beneficial; the security personnel are now trained, so that if there is a problem or a situation they will try to solve it with diplomacy. Using force is a measure of last resort. "Securing elections is the primary task of the armed forces now; there will be no tolerance for anyone trying to ruin the electoral process." Voters will either cast their ballots forMohamed Mursi, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), orAhmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to work under deposed president Hosni Mubarak, in the runoffs set for 16 and 17 June. The same source said that, "starting Wednesday, leaflets will be distributed in the street to encourage citizens to vote." "The participation of the Egyptian people in this crucial phase is important to fulfil the demands of the revolution." The new president will be officially announced on 21 June, and the ruling military council will relinquish power to him. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has been the interim ruler of the country since the overthrow of Mubarak on 11 February 2011.
