Activists defy protest ban as Egypt votes in 'false' election

Pro-democracy activists defied a ban on demonstrations to protest electoral irregularities as Egypt went to the polls in a multi-party presidential contest marred by blatant, pervasive rigging and intimidation.

Hundreds of militants from the Kifaya (Enough) movement, chanting 'Mubarak, no, no, no,' and '24 years is enough,' disrupted traffic in Cairo's central Tarfir Square, urging Egyptians to boycott the vote - officially their country's first such multi-party presidential election - on the grounds that it was fixed by authorities to ensure President Hosni Mubarak remains in office for a further six years.

"We say that this is a false election," said George Ishak, Kifaya's veteran Marxist leader. "It was called under changes in the constitution authorised by a referendum that was rigged."

"In the name of seven million unemployed, Mubarak's candidature is illegal," read one banner in the throng. Military police with truncheons drawn observed the demonstration, illegal under Egypt's emergency laws that curtail freedom of assembly, but allowed protesters to snake into surrounding streets.

Egypt's electoral commission, made up of judges appointed by Mubarak, yesterday morning reversed itself after a court wrangle of several days with NGOs and said independent monitors could attend the polls. But polling stations in Cairo visited by Western reporters yesterday were evidently geared towards ensuring voters cast ballots only for President Mubarak rather than Ayman Nour, the liberal lawyer who is the leading opposition candidate.

Cairo polling stations were decked with massive pictures of President Mubarak and burly members of his ruling National Democratic Party wearing Mubarak badges hovered around voters, taking their ballots from officials and handing them to voters exhorting them to do their duty to the 77-year-old strongman.

Female NDP sympathisers sang chants extolling the virtues of the president at a polling station in a girls' secondary school in the Adeen district of the capital. "We are here to help the voters," explained one beefy NDP official.

At another station, the NDP set up a van outside blaring a party song with the lyrics: "We choose him." The Ibn Khaldoun centre, an independent election monitoring committee, said police beat up four of its monitors in Assut, upper Egypt, while eight were arrested in Alexandria, Sohag and Kar Kalf El Sheikh.

Mohammed Zarei, from the National Committee of Monitors, said people were bussed en masse to vote for Mubarak in some areas of Alexandria. In Qena, two voters found that other people already had used their ballots. Many polling stations opened late or lacked the phosphorescent ink for voters to mark their fingers after casting ballots to prevent fraud.

Many Cairenes said they had not bothered to vote because they considered it a foregone conclusion that the "Rais," or boss, as Mubarak is known, would win by hook or by crook.

It was unclear how many Egyptians turned out to back Mr Nour's presidential challenge but one Western diplomat predicted that President Mubarak will be credited with three quarters of the votes cast, while Mr Nour "would be happy" if his official tally is registered in double figures.

"I voted for Ayman Nour not because I am 100 per cent convinced but because I felt that the election was a farce and that he was the only one not playing a role," said Yusuf Al Arabi, 31, a journalist emerging from a polling booth.

Many civil servants, such as Karina Mustafa, 51, supported the incumbent. "I voted for Hosni because he has experience. He used to be a pilot and did a lot of things. We know nothing about the other ones," she said.