Egypt Awaits Poll Results with Brotherhood Likely to Emerge Ahead

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Egyptians on Wednesday are waiting for first post-uprising poll, with expectations that the Muslim Brotherhood will lead the vote count.On Monday and Tuesday, millions of voters casted their ballots in the capital Cairo and second-city Alexandria, for the first phase of multi-stage parliamentary elections.The results to be published on Wednesday only cover those areas that voted earlier this week -- a third of constituencies -- but they will show the trends likely to shape a country that has not had a free election in 60 years.The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper and the independent daily Al-Shorouk both gave the lead to the Freedom and Justice Party, formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, according to preliminary figures.The Muslim Brotherhood was banned during the time of veteran president Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in February by a popular uprising.The vote on Monday and Tuesday in Cairo and Alexandria and other areas was the first of three stages of an election for a new lower house of parliament. Turnout for the vote was high, with long queues forming before polling stations opened on Monday morning. A member of the interim military leadership has forecast 70 percent of voters exercised their right.The rest of the country follows next month and in January.After each round there will be a run-off vote, and then a further six rounds of voting for the upper house of parliament from January.Meanwhile, anti-military rule protesters remained in Tahrir Square, nerve center of the anti-Mubarak uprising and the pro-democracy movement, with clashes between protesters and street vendors overnight left 79 people injured./129