CAIRO, Nov 28: Egyptians voted in droves on Monday in the first election since the fall of despotic ruler Hosni Mubarak, giving parties a chance to make political gains even as the army generals who replaced him cling to power.

Turnout in the country’s first poll in decades was high but despite voters’ enthusiasm, concern still lingered that the military rulers were more focused on preserving their privilege and power than on nurturing democratic transformation.

Frustration erupted last week into violent protests that cost 42 lives, mostly around Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square, centre of the people’s uprising that forced the end of Mr Mubarak’s 30-year-rule in February.

“We are at a crossroads,” Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said on the eve of polling, referring to successful elections or ‘dangerous hurdles’ that the armed forces would not allow.

Fears of unrest did not appear to have deterred voters.

After a few hours of polling, the election commission chief said turnout was higher than expected but gave no details.

Many analysts expect the Muslim Brotherhood’s party and other religious parties to do well but much remains uncertain in Egypt’s complex voting system of party lists and individuals.

In Cairo, Alexandria and other areas festooned with posters, voters formed long queues, where many of them debated Egypt’s political future, hoping that for the first time they could shape the destiny of this Arab nation of 80 million people.

“Aren’t the army officers the ones who protected us during the revolution?” one woman asked loudly at a polling station in Cairo’s Nasr City, referring to the army’s role in easing Mr Mubarak from power. “What do those slumdogs in Tahrir want?”

One man replied: “Those in Tahrir are young men and women who are the reason why a 61-year-old man like me voted in a parliamentary election for the first time in his life today.”

Parliament’s lower house will be Egypt’s first nationally elected body since Mr Mubarak’s fall and those credentials alone may enable it to dilute the military’s monopoly of power.

The world is closely watching the election under the shadow of the ruling military council, keen for stability in Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel despite the opposition of Egyptian people, owns the Suez Canal linking Europe and Asia, and which in Mr Mubarak’s time was a US ally in countering militants in the region.

Political transformation in Egypt, traditional leader of the Arab world, will reverberate across the Middle East, where a new generation demanding democratic change has risen against despots and autocrats who have ruled for decades.

Washington and its European allies have urged the generals to step aside swiftly and make way for civilian rule.—Reuters