Egyptians choose their parliamentarians

Egyptians voters will head today to the ballot centers to choose their representatives to the parliament, in the first parliamentary elections following the re-election of President Hosni Mubarak for a fifth Presidential term of office in presidential elections in which for the first time, several candidates competed.

In a televised speech, Mubarak called on the Egyptian people to vote in the elections in being "a national duty." He promised the elections to be free and transparent and considered that these elections are an "important station" on the path of progress in the political life of the country.

These elections will be carried out in three phases and continue until December 7th. Some 5310 candidates are competing for 444 seats to be directly elected with the exception of ten parliamentarians to be appointed by the President of the Republic.

Worthy mentioning that the higher committee for the elections which is presided over by the minister of justice Mahmoud Abu al-Leil, in charge of supervising it, permitted some 4,000 observers from civil society organizations to monitor the voting and votes counting operations in these elections which will be made under the judicial supervision.