Egypt heads to the polls

Large numbers are reported to have turned out for the country's first elections since the overthrow of Mubarak. Promisingly, few security problems were reported. A BBC reporter in Cairo, Lyse Doucet, describes the situation:

Ballot papers show a bewildering range of symbols in a country with high levels of illiteracy - everything from a basketball to a blender. You run out of relevant icons when there are thousands of candidates. Most queues I saw were orderly. But at one, some Egyptians started shouting: "Why is it so slow? We need to go back to work!" Party workers were still in action, still distributing leaflets, in violation of campaign rules. When I asked one Muslim Brotherhood official about it, he put it down to an excess of enthusiasm.

Tony Karon explains that the elections mark a great turning point; Robert Satloff advocates more US involvement in the elections.

(Image: "Ballot boxes being collected from a polling station near Tahrir Square in Cairo on Tuesday after a second day of voting in Egypt’s parliamentary elections." Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse, Getty Images, via the New York Times)