Mubarak expected to win easily as charges of fraud mar Egyptian election

EGYPTIANS voted yesterday in the country’s first contested presidential election, but charges of fraud and a big boycott rally marred balloting that longtime leader Hosni Mubarak portrayed as a major democratic reform.

Ordinary citizens and opposition party members said that election workers inside polls in Luxor instructed voters to choose Mubarak, who is expected to be easily re-elected to a fifth six-year term. In Alexandria, workers for the ruling National Democratic Party promised food to those who cast a ballot, voters said.

More than 3,000 people marched through Cairo at mid-afternoon by far the largest crowd ever drawn by the opposition group Kifaya, or 'Enough' in Arabic. Police watched from a distance, despite government vows the day before that protests would not be allowed.

Egypt says the decision to allow challengers to Mubarak signals a move toward greater democracy in a country that has seen only authoritarian rule for more than a half-century.

Opponents, however, dismissed the reform claims as a sham. They note that Mubarak's party controls most of the government, including the electoral process.

Until now, the 77-year-old Mubarak has been re-elected in referendums in which he was the only candidate and voters' only option was saying "yes" or "no" to his continuing in power.