Egyptians have taken to the polls for the country’s first elections since the fall of Mubarak’s regime in February.
Reports suggest that queues formed early outside polling stations, with delays at a number of major stations causing lines to stretch several blocks long, and in some cases entirely encircling the schoolhouses where voting was taking place.
"They're trying to make it delayed so that we get angry and go home," a man cried outside a still-closed polling center in the poor, mixed neighborhood of Shoubra, an hour after it was meant to open. "But we'll show them. We will stay here and we will vote."
The vote has gone ahead despite nine days of mass demonstrations, with protesters calling for an end to military rule before elections take place.
"We reject any resolution taken by the military council - except for the handover of power to an authority that we approve. Then we will be making the decisions in Egyptian politics," said a Tahrir demonstrator on Sunday.
More than 40 protesters have been killed and around 2,000 injured in the past nine days.
In a statement on Sunday, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said that Egypt was “at a crossroads”.
"Either we succeed - politically, economically and socially - or the consequences will be extremely grave and we will not allow that," he said.
Fifty political parties have put forward candidates for Monday’s parliamentary elections, with the process due to run until March.
The first raft of elections, which runs till January, is for the People’s Assembly, also known as the lower house.
More than 50 million citizens are eligible to vote, but with little time for candidates to campaign, commentators are unsure as to the eventual make-up of the 500-seat chamber.
The complexity of Egypt’s electoral system, a mix of proportional representation and first past the post, adds to the uncertainty, though experts predict that the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to do well.
Elections for the upper house, the 270-strong Shura Council will be concluded in March.