Voters in Egypt began making their way to the polls Thursday in the second and final day of presidential elections that has seen a relatively high turnout, according to dpa. The first hour of voting in Cairo and its twin city Giza was off to a slow start but observers said polling was likely to pick up in cooler afternoon hours. State television showed queues forming outside polling stations in several provinces outside Cairo. State employees were given the day off work to make it easier for them to vote after high voter turnout the day before, according to the report. Thirteen candidates are vying for the top job, previously held for decades by Hosny Mubarak before he was deposed in a popular revolution on February 11, 2011. The frontrunners include Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister; Abdul-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, a moderate Islamist; Mohamed Morsi, the powerful Muslim Brotherhood's candidate; Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last premier; and Hamdeen Sabahy, a leftist opposition politician. More than 50 million eligible voters - out of a population of around 80 million - were casting their ballots over the two-day polls. The more than 13,000 polling stations, spread across the country's 27 provinces, are to close at 8 pm (1800 GMT).
