Egypt Starts Second Day of Landmark Elections

Polls open for the second day of presidential vote in Egypt after millions of people cast their ballots across the North African country in the first day of election.

The turnout was high on Wednesday in the country’s first free presidential elections since the former president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular revolution last year.

Voting across the country resumed at 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Thursday and Egyptians once again packed polling stations to cast their ballots.

The lines outside the polling places were so long on Wednesday that authorities had to extend voting time by one hour. Observers predict that voter turnout will be more than 80 percent.

The vote count will start immediately after the polls close. The main battle is between four candidates of 12 hopefuls for the position.

The top hopefuls are former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi, independent Islamic candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, and Mubarak’s last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

Mursi has swept the country’s expatriate vote, securing 40 percent of the ballots cast by the Egyptians residing abroad.

Two of the hopefuls are expected to go into a run-off vote on June 16 and 17 if no candidate manages to get more than 50 percent of the votes.