Polling stations opened yesterday for Egypt?s first presidential elections, with President Hosni Mubarak expected to win a fifth six-year term as the leader of the Arab world?s most populous nation.At Nubar middle school in central Cairo, the Mubarak campaign?s representative was the first to vote after the station opened at 8 a.m. In the first 45 minutes, about a dozen people had voted and had their fingers marked with indelible ink to prevent double voting.

A polling station at al-Radi primary school in the rural province of Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, had one voter, alongside election officers, many police and watchmen armed with rifles. President Mubarak, his wife Suzanne and his politician son Gamal, much discussed as a possible successor, voted in the northeast Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, where Mubarak lives. They too dipped their fingers in the ink. Mubarak, 77, faces nine contenders but most of them are little known and their parties have few members.

Thirty-two million of the 72 million Egyptians are registered to vote but the turnout in previous elections has been very low, often less than 10 percent in some areas. Mubarak?s main rivals are two liberals ? Ayman Nour of the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party and Noman Gomaa of the Wafd Party, which dominated Egyptian politics in the early 20th century. The rules exclude the moderate Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group in the country, because the government has never let it form a political party.

Two medium-sized opposition parties are boycotting the elections, saying the arrangements are unfair. Outside the polling stations, posters supporting Mubarak greatly outnumbered those of his rivals. Rights groups are watching the voting more closely than ever to try to prevent the kind of abuses which have marred previous parliamentary elections and referendums for the presidency under the old single-candidate system. They have mobilised several thousand volunteer observers despite a decision by the Presidential Election Commission not to let them enter polling stations. Rights groups challenged that decision in the courts but a high court ruled on Tuesday that the commission had the right to reject observers and is immune from judicial review.

Campaigning for the poll ignited a political debate not witnessed for decades in a country that Mubarak, a former air force commander, has ruled for the past 24 years. But many Egyptians are sceptical that his ruling National Democratic Party will give much ground to opposition groups or that the candidates can deliver on promises to relieve poverty and create jobs.