CAIRO - Egyptians headed on Monday to the polling stations to vote in the first elections since the toppling of president Hosni Munbarak. The first phase of the elections, which will span Monday and Tuesday, take place in nine governorates. Voters queued up at polling stations across Cairo, waiting to cast their ballots. Tight security is reported to be maintained in constituencies and youth volunteers are helping out by organising queues and leading voters into stations. "I'm here to secure voters and polls," one of the volunteers told The Egyptian Gazette online. "Voters are so far showing full cooperation and understanding to instructions", he said. "We will do our best to make the polls proceed smoothly", judge Mohamed Ali, a head of a polling station in Hadayeq Helwan suburb in Cairo, said. "I'll do every thing to protect the polls whatever the price," he added. Many polling stations opened late due to administrative problems ranging from the late arrival of judges supervising the polls to a lack of voting forms. "I don't know exactly why the ballot has not started so far," Mohamed Gharib, a pharmacist from Kafr el-Sheikh governorate, told this website by telephone. At el-Raghama school, in the same province, men and women were enthusiastically queuing in separate lines before the opening of polling stations at 8:00 am (0600G).
