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Live Update 2: Egypt's polarising presidential runoffs in full swing
Published in Ahram Online on 16 - 06 - 2012

Voting is underway across the country's polling stations for Egypt's divisive presidential runoff elections. Follow Ahram Online's blow-by-blow coverage as Egyptians choose Mubarak's replacement
18:17 Back in Heliopolis, Al-Orouba School polling station is deserted.
An army officer requesting anonymity told Ahram Online reporter Yasmine Fathi: "The turnout is higher than the first round but maybe some aren't showing up as their candidates didn't make it to the runoffs."
18:15 The best democracy money can buy? A report from theAl-Shehab Rights Center claims Shafiq campaigners at polling stations in four districts in the coastal city of Alexandria have been trying to swap cash for votes.
The centre says its monitors who witnessed the incidents will be filing an official complaint soon.
18:10 An Egyptian fixer working for Finnish media was arrested in mid-afternoon at a Sayeda Zeinab polling station after a Shafiq supporter accused her of trying to influence her vote.
Marwa Nasser told Ahram Online she was interviewing emerging voters at a secondary school in the area, only to be accused of trying to sway a female voter who had already cast her ballot for Mubarak's former prime minister.
“She said I was trying to make her vote Mursi. That is a complete lie,” Marwa told Ahram Online over the phone, before her mobile was switched off. She is understood to remain in custody.
She says she was held by police while the polling station judge wrote a report of her supposed offence without hearing her side of the story. She has since been transferred to the General Prosecutor's office and has been told she may spend the night there.
18:00 We return to Cairo's rather smart district of Heliopolis, often seen as a liberal secular stronghold, Almaza School polling station is witnessing a rare wave of support for Brotherhood candidate Mursi.
Abla Kareem told Ahram Online's reporter Yasmine Fathi that she is optimistic about the Islamist group's Nahda (renaissance) electoral program, adding that the "only project Shafiq has is to bring back the old regime."
Naila Fathi, also a diehard Mursi supporter since the first round, says "I don't care if the elections are being conducted before the constitution; the country is unstable and we need a president."
Egyptian presidential runoffs are in full swing and turnout, according to the Egyptian Coalition for Elections Monitoring is higher than the start of the first round "despite the high temperatures."
The two presidential contenders have already voted – with Mubarak-era premier Ahmed Shafiq spotted sneaking into a New Cairo polling station via a backdoor to avoid being "shoe-'d" away by angry protesters. The Brotherhood's Mursi, however made a more dignified entrance, queuing in the sweltering heat with two Herculean bodyguards.
The Shafiq campaign was clearly feeling the pressure: it implored the public, via its Twitter account to not wait and "go and vote and take other people with you'… presumably in support of the former regime figure.
Voters were banned from using their own writing implements, after the electoral commission received information of a shipment of pens arriving in Egypt whose ink disappears within three hours. 50,000 pens were provided instead to prevent foreign hands having a "hand-in" the elections results. Electoral violations appear to have been committed by supporters of both presidential camps, including incidences of vote buying, illegal flyering and manipulation of the electoral register.
By the afternoon, there were reports that seven members of the April 6 Youth Movement were arrested from a Nasr City polling station and an Egyptian fixer/journalist working with Finnish media Marwa Nasser was also detained outside Sayeda Zeinab district.
For coverage of the first half of the day, click here


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