CAIRO: Voters in long queues wrapped around blocks throughout the city are waiting to cast their vote in the first elections since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak. As polls opened on Monday morning, Twitter is abuzz with reports of a strong Muslim Brotherhood presence at polling stations. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, set to take a sweeping victory in elections, have reportedly taken to polling stations in efforts to “help” voters learn how to vote and use their ballots properly. They have reportedly set up “help tents” in front of polling stations, and have passed out leaflets and brochures to those in line. “Yellow-shirted FJP worker explains how to vote, but not whom to vote for (unless you count his garb) http://yfrog.com/h7a7afudj” said Al-Jazeera's Evan Hill, reporting from Alexandria. “The #MB‘s F&J party takes it up a notch: a team w a laptop sits outside a polling station chking IDs w a database 2 tell ppl their pol sta,” reported Abigail Hauslohner of Time Magazine, reporting from Cairo. According to Egyptian voting laws, it is illegal to campaign on election day. The Brotherhood, however, has defended their election-day activities. “Campaigning outside polling statns is illegal, howvr, distributing lists of candidates names is NOT illegal #EgyElections” they said on their official English-language Twitter account (@ikhwanweb), defending their presence at the polls. The Muslim Brotherhood called upon Egyptian citizens to participate in “healthy democratic elections that reflect the will of the Egyptian people, stressing that this is of great importance for the process of democratic transformation experienced by Egypt today,” in an official statement published Monday. The party had officially distanced themselves from the ongoing anti-military protests across Egypt over the last ten days. Thy pushed instead on a call for elections to take place as scheduled, as their affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) are considered the best-organized political force in the country to date, with a massive grassroots capacity. With their strong standing established, it was in the best interest of the group to push the country toward the polls. However, many argued that the nation was not ready for elections, as it was wracked by a violent police crack down on demonstrators over the last ten days, leaving 41 dead and 3,000 injured in the nation by official estimates. BM
