Egyptians head to polls but future remains cloudy

Egyptian women walk past soldiers as they arrive to vote at a polling station in the Manial neighborhood of Cairo, Nov. 28, 2011. / Getty

Last Updated at 12:30 p.m. Eastern

CAIRO - Shaking off years of political apathy, Egyptians turned out in long lines at voting stations Monday in their nation's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a giant step toward what they hope will be a democracy after decades of dictatorship.

Long lines prompted Egypt's electoral commission to extend voting time at all polling stations by two hours. The violence that was feared hasn't materialized.

The first results aren't expected until Wednesday.

The vote promises to be the fairest and cleanest election in Egypt in living memory, but it takes place amid sharp polarization among Egyptians and confusion over the nation's direction. On one level, the election is a competition between Islamic parties who want to take Egypt in a direction toward religious rule and more liberal groups that want a separation between religion and politics.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organized group, along with other Islamists are expected to do well in the vote.

But also weighing heavily on voters' mind was whether this election will really set Egypt on a path of democracy after months of turmoil under the rule of the military, which took power after Mubarak's Feb. 11 fall. Only 10 days before the elections, major protests erupted demanding the generals step aside because of fears they will not allow real freedoms.

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CBS News correspondent Liz Palmer said there were crowds of hundreds at a polling station not far from Tahrir Square, waiting for the polls to at eight o'clock to cast their ballots.

Some voters brought their children along, saying they wanted them to learn how to exercise their rights in a democracy. Lines in cities around the country brought out a cross-section of the nation: men in Islamic beards, women in trendy clothes, the conservative headscarf or the niqab — the most radical Islamic attire covering women's body from head to toe with only the eyes showing.

"I am voting for freedom. We lived in slavery. Now we want justice in freedom," said 50-year-old Iris Nawar at a polling station in Maadi, a Cairo suburb.

Palmer said Army officers grappling with the new concept of transparency weren't sure about allowing the CBS News crew to shoot video of actual voting. The commanding officer at the polling station, however, had been sent for a U.S. military training course in Alabama in the late 1990s.

"Suddenly," says Palmer, "we were given carte blanche."

Many voters complained that the lines were too long and moved too slowly at the stations, which were heavily guarded by police and soldiers to prevent violence.

"If you have waited for 30 years, can't you wait now for another hour?" an army officer yelled at hundreds of women restless over the wait at one center.

"We are afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood. But we lived for 30 years under Mubarak, we will live with them, too," said Nawar, a first-time voter.

For decades, few Egyptians bothered to cast ballots because nearly every election was rigged, whether by bribery, ballot box stuffing or intimidation by police at the polls. Turnout was often in the single digits.

The long lines outside some polling centers in Cairo suggested a respectable turnout. Many said they were voting for the first time - a sign of an enthusiasm that, in this election, one's vote mattered.

"I never voted before because I didn't have confidence in the process, but today I feel there is honesty," said first-time voter Fathi Abdul Hafiz. "I have come to vote as it's a duty, so I have come to fulfill that duty, despite the fact that I'm very tired, I came anyway." Crying, Hafiz added, "I came to give my voice, and may God help those who will reform."

The election is burdened with a long and unwieldy process. It stretched over multiple stages, with different provinces taking their turn to vote with each round. Each round lasts two days. Voting for 498-seat People's Assembly, parliament's lower chamber, will last until January, then elections for the 390-member upper house will drag on until March.

Moreover, there are significant questions over how relevant the new parliament will even be. The ruling military council of generals, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, insists it will maintain considerable powers after the election. It will put together the government and is trying to keep extensive control over the creation of an assembly to write a new constitution, a task that originally was seen as mainly in the parliament's hands.

The protesters who took to Cairo's Tahrir Square and other cities since Nov. 19 in rallies recalling the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak demand the generals surrender power immediately to a civilian government.

Some hoped their vote would help eventually push the generals out.

"We are fed up with the military," said Salah Radwan, waiting outside a polling center in Cairo's middle-class Abdeen neighborhood. "They should go to protect our borders and leave us to rule ourselves. Even if we don't get it right this time, we will get it right next time."

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[sacabezo]

you have very bad ideas about egypt we are not saudis we dont hate usa we just hate israel and your support to them but we dont have any problem with the american people

[freepress6]

They can vote until Doomsday, but if the military won't budge, then the military won't budge. There's a story about the Pope getting down on Joseph Stalin's case for some kind of inhumane act. "How many battalions does the Pope have?" Stalin supposedly quipped.
Sterling Greenwood/AspenFreePress

[oldman67]

The US has done their part. On June 25 2011 John Kerry and John McCain led a delegation to Egypt and Tunisia to promote private sector growth.Included was a collection of corporate parasites from G.E., Boeing,Cola-Cola,Bechtel,Exxon-Mobil,Marroit and Dow. We can't forget George Soros who funded the new Constitution of Egypt.

[baileyccc]

If a majority of them could read and write this could work, but so many have had certain ideas pounded into their brains since the cradle, Egypt, as history as taught us, is hopeless.

[DebbieSmith1959]

According to a study by a well-respected think tank, Egypt has a history of being among the least free nations in the world. Here is an examination of how both civil and political freedom in Egypt is crushed, how the level of freedom in the country compares to other nations in the region and what changes need to be implemented to improve the situation for Egyptians:

http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/11/freedom-in-egypt-what-are-prospects-for.html

[Samlv]

They can only elect different stripes of nut cases because that is all they have to work with.

Let's see how the Muslim brotherhood, parent of Hamas, does running the country.

[zondfive]

Sorry to say but I think you have nailed it. Those women will all be burkaed up in short order if the MB has it's way and from the looks of things that is their future.

[smittyc]

There is a responsible group in Egypt that grind out the day to day existence and make things work. They are at a boiling point with what is going on. This is not some Hollywood movie being played out in Egypt, nor is it something the U.S. can control with shock and awe.

[Samlv]

You mean, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood, the only organization which routinely provides human services. The parent of Hamas. An organization with a shocking charter and track record of Islamic fundamentalist justice which, roughly translated, means fanatical oppression of women and murder of those who dare speak of its true nature. I hope you are right, and they do boil over, because it is the only way for most in eye West to really understand the region.

[Lerianis4]

The problem with democracy in the Middle East is that you have too many idiots who wish to force their interpretation of Islam on other people by physical force if those people refuse to adhere to their interpretation.

If those people would disappear (they are existent in Christianity and Judaism today, but are marginalized and looked upon as being insane) democracy would work in the Middle East.

[Samlv]

Islam literally means peace. But peace through submission to Islamic law. So, we should be clear and consistently saying that we fundamentally disagree. And our entire left leaning activist cadre should be up in arms daily over their systemic oppression of over a half billion women every day, not to mention kangaroo religious courts and commonplace rape. Why do we ascribe positive attributes to entire countries and cultures which have never earned them? Are we at stupid and blind?