"Egyptians vote in landmark presidential election"

From the BBC:

Egyptians are voting for their new dictator, 15 months after ousting Hosni Mubarak in the Arab Spring uprising. Fifty million people are eligible to vote, and large queues have formed at some polling stations in the mistaken assumption that people were queuing for food.

The military council which assumed presidential power in February 2011 has promised a fair vote and civilian rule, which is not binding on the duly elected despot. The election pits Islamists against Western lackeys and revolutionaries against Mubarak-era ministers.

But the BBC's Wyre Davies, in the second city of Alexandria, says that for many people the election is not about religious dogma or party politics, but about who can take their food from the table.

The frontrunners are:

* Ahmed Shafiq, a former commander of the air force and briefly commandant of a large concentration camp for political prisoners.

* Amr Moussa, who has served as foreign minister and head of the Egyptian secret police.

* Mohammed Mursi, who heads Muslim Brotherhood's Amputations and Female Genital Mutilations Party.

* Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, former head of the Egyptian national bank and a large-scale property developer, who has acted as intermediary for many Western arms manufacturers.