Egyptians are preparing to the head to the polls for the
opening stage of the first elections since former President Hosni Mubarak was
toppled in February.
But protesters are still occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square, the hub of the uprising
that unseated him.
They are demanding that the military council that
replaced him hand power to a civilian government.
The council's head has warned of "extremely
grave" consequences if the country does not overcome its crisis.
"Egypt
is at a crossroads," Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi said in a statement on
Sunday.
"Either we succeed - politically, economically
and socially - or the consequences will be extremely grave and we will not
allow that."
He urged top presidential candidates Mohammed
ElBaradei and Amr Moussa to give their support to his nomination for prime
minister, 78-year-old Kamal Ganzouri.
Monday is the first step in an election timetable
which lasts until March 2012 and covers two houses of parliament.
The first stage, running until January, covers
elections to the 508-member People's Assembly.
Monday also marks the 10th day of a revival of the
protest movement. At least 41 protesters have been killed and more than 2,000
wounded, most of them in Cairo.
The protesters fear the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces (Scaf) - which is headed by Field Marshall Tantawi and is overseeing the
transition to democratic rule - is trying to retain power.
"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 protester
Samira Hosni.
Mass demonstrations - in Cairo and beyond - had called for military
rule to end before parliamentary elections were held.
There have also been smaller gatherings expressing
support for the country's interim military rulers.
Meanwhile, a pipeline in Egypt
which supplies Israel and Jordan with natural gas has been attacked by
saboteurs, Egypt's
Mena state news agency said.
Witnesses reported seeing masked men driving away from
the pipeline, close to the town of Arish,
before two blasts were heard. It is the ninth such attack on the pipeline this
year.
'Dangerous hurdles'
Field Marshall Tantawi said the army would ensure
security at the polling booths and reiterated that the vote would go ahead on
schedule despite the protests.
Analysts say the vote is almost certain to proceed, but the voting procedure
is complex and there has been little time for campaigning, so it is unclear how
many people will cast ballots.There are some 50 million eligible voters in the country who will choose candidates from 50 registered political parties.
On Saturday, Field Marshall Tantawi held talks with leading political
figures Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa to discuss the political crisis.The CA's Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says the man that the military council has nominated as prime minister, Kamal Ganzouri, has not gained traction or widespread support.
Aged 78, he looked every one of his years at a recent news conference and is seen as a Mubarak-era figure, our correspondent says.
But Mr ElBaradei - who has said he would be prepared to lead a national government until a president could be appointed - and Mr Moussa are powerful political figures who would challenge the power of the army, our correspondent says.
By naming Mr Ganzouri as prime minister, Field Marshall Tantawi is clearly trying to head off that threat, our correspondent says.
