History is made in Egypt

Egyptians queued patiently to vote today for their leader for the first time in country’s history.

With no reliable opinion polls, no one knows who will win the presidency, but Egyptians revelled in the uncertainty following the routinely rigged votes of ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s 30 years in power.

There were also no early reports of vote-related violence on the streets. The election is a momentous sequel to the popular revolt that toppled Mubarak 15 months ago.

The military council in charge of a messy political transition since then has overseen a constitutional

referendum, parliamentary polls and now a vote for a president to whom it has promised to hand power by July 1.

Whoever wins faces a huge task to revive a dire economic outlook and will also have to deal with a military establishment keen to preserve its privileges and influence.

However, the relative powers of the president, government, parliament, judiciary and military have yet to be defined due to a tussle over who should write a new constitution.