People have formed unprecedented long lines at voting stations during the first stage of the parliamentary elections that started in Egypt on Monday.
People have formed unprecedented long lines at voting stations during the first stage of the parliamentary elections that started in Egypt on Monday.
About 200 people were lining up on Cairo’s street of Talaat Harb. They came long before the station was opened and the line did not subside after the start of the voting.
Numerous policemen and military were in charge of security at the stations.
On Monday, the Egyptians are electing deputies to the National Assembly, the lower chamber of parliament.
The elections will he held under a sophisticated pattern in three stages and will last will January 10 of the next year. First-stage voting will be held in nine Egyptian provinces – Cairo, Alexandria, Assiyut, the Red Sea, Luxor, Fayoum, Damietta, Port Said and Kafr-El-Sheikh.
All in all, according to the Supreme Electoral Commission, 17.5 million out of Egypt’s more than 50 million voters have the right to vote in these provinces. A total of 3,307 voting stations have been opened for them.
The voting will be held for two days.
The second and third stages will take place on December 14-15 and January 3-4 of the next year, respectively.
An ink mark on a finger means that a person has voted.
The elections are taking place against the backdrop of recent riots on Tahrir Square in Cairo and in some other Egyptian cities, in which more than 40 people have lost their lives.
The demonstrators’ camp on Cairo’s Tahrir Square on the eve of the parliamentary elections.
