Bomb blast reported at Egypt polling station

Bomb blast reported at Egypt polling station
Mon May 26, 2014 12:00:30

A homemade bomb has reportedly exploded outside an Egyptian polling station as the nation votes for a new president, according to state television.

The explosion is believed to have taken place in the city of El-Mahalla El-Kubra, ITV reported on Monday.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which has not yet been confirmed by officials.

There are still no reports on the number of potential casualties as the result of the bombing.

Egyptians began voting today in a two-day presidential election in which former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is widely viewed as the pre-determined winner, reviving rule of another military strongman over the nation three years after a popular revolution brought down long-time US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak, also a former military man.

"We need someone who will from day one put the country on the right track," said Ahmed El-Demerdesh, a mechanical engineer, as he waited to vote in Cairo. "We can't take any more experiments."

Voters cast ballots at heavily guarded polling stations from 9:00 a.m. (0600 GMT). Sisi, who toppled the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi last July, faces only one challenger in the two-day vote -- leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.

His opponents insist that he is the mastermind of a coup that robbed Egypt's first freely elected leader Mohamed Morsi of power.

NTJ/MB

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