KUWAIT(Update 2) - Egyptian expatriates have begun voting in Egypt's parliamentary election, despite confusion over procedures and doubt over whether voting will start in their homeland on Monday as planned. An electoral official said voting at embassies abroad had started on Wednesday and would go on until Saturday. Abdel Moez Ibrahim, head of the election committee, told a news conference in Cairo: "Egyptians abroad, we added a new article allowing them to cast their ballots. This law was passed three or four days ago. The law is in force." Violence between Egyptian protesters and security forces in which 38 people have been killed has cast a shadow over what is billed as Egypt's first free election in decades. But an electoral official said Egypt was ready to hold the parliamentary vote "under any conditions" and an army general denied the military wanted to delay a transition to democracy. A statement by the Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait on Thursday said voters must print out a voting paper from the election website and deliver it to the embassy by mail or by hand. Egyptians in Canada and Saudi Arabia also began voting. An Egyptian court ruled last month that Egyptians living abroad should be allowed to vote at embassies in parliamentary and presidential elections. Ahmed al-Dabea, an Egyptian economist in Kuwait, said he had only discovered that voting had started when he contacted the embassy to ask about the voting process. "An embassy official told me that the mechanism is still not clear to them, they still have no clue about the logistics or who will be authorised to receive the voters' envelopes... and we are already 24 hours into the process," said Dabea. The Egyptian embassy in Kuwait turned away a Reuters reporter asking to know more about the voting process. Other Egyptian expatriates in Kuwait said they had found out about the voting through social media networks. "I got to know about it this morning through Twitter and Facebook. We don't know what really is going on," said Aisha El Sayed, an Egyptian technical analyst. Egyptian media say about eight million Egyptians study or work abroad. Most work in other Arab states, including the Gulf, though there is a sizeable community in the West.
