Egypt Holds First Elections In History, Today

Today is a historic one in Egypt, as the nation holds its first elections in its history. According to Aljazeera, “large numbers” of voters turned out to participate in what is the first day of “a three-stage” election process.

Egyptian voters are electing a new lower house of parliament today, and are choosing 168 of 498 deputies. It’s the first part of a process that lasts through March 2012.

But the process is not without controversy. In some cases, at voting areas, ballots are showing up late, and judges are arriving late or not at all. That calls into question the legitimacy of the voting process against voter fraud. A concern that’s especially great considering that some Egyptians think the Egyptian military may be fixing the entire deal, or trying to do so.

But, even if the Egyptians can’t entirely believe in the vote, and because of a military that doesn’t want to take orders from its people (a bad thing), the fact that the nation has this messy and excellent democratic action underway, means those problems with the military will be addressed, either by more protests, counter vote-fixing, or legal action.

A beautiful thing.

Stay tuned.