Egypt heads back to the ballot box in presidential election runoff

Egyptians began voting on Saturday as over 13,000 polling stations opened in the 27 Egyptian provinces to make it possible for the 50 million voters to choose between the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi, and a former air force commander who was the last prime minister of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Ahmed Shafiq, in the second round of the presidential election.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), television reported. They will close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) for two days of voting.

Final results be announced are to be June 21 at the latest. Unofficial results could be announced as early as Sunday evening. The transfer of powers from the ruling military council to the elected head of state should take place no later than June 30.

Approximately 150,000 military and many police officers were deployed to secure polling stations, and 9,534 observers from 24 local human rights organisations and 243 observers from three international organisations will monitor the election in addition to regional organisations including the Arab League, the African Union and the European Union, Aswat Masriya news reported.

According to local media, Egyptian army and police deployed on routes followed by the infiltrators, and tanks and machine guns have been deployed along with helicopters to monitor the area.

On Thursday, two decisions issued by the Supreme Constitutional Court .The Court first rejected a bill that would have prevented Ahmed Shafiq, as a former senior official in the Mubarak regime, to stand in the presidential election runoff, on Saturday and Sunday.

In the second ruling,the Court invalidated a third of the 498 seats in parliament, claiming that certain rules applied in parliamentary elections last winter were unconstitutional. This decision will, de facto, lead to the dissolution of the lower house of parliament in its entirety because it has not been elected according to "constitutional requirements" and that its composition was "completely illegal".

In related news, an Egyptian newspaper reported Saturday that Hamas-affiliated militants had infiltrated into Egypt in a bid to disturb the peace ahead of presidential runoff elections.

According to the Al-Sharouk newspaper, Egypt's national security service tapped phone calls between the supposed infiltrators and their supporters inside Egypt.

For latest developments of Egypt's presidential run-off please check here.

Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/16/220925.html