As voting continues in the second day of Egypt's presidential election, the air of celebration continues much as it was reported Wednesday [May 23, 2012] by Sophie Claudet:

In Maadi, a mixed posh and lower-middle class southern Cairo suburb, people queued up as early as 6 am, though voting stations didn't open until 8. Some openly discussed politics in the long line.

A fully veiled, niqab-clad woman told her friend she couldn't possibly vote for the Muslim Brotherhood: “They will take over the country. They already control parliament.” A young woman swore only Mubarak’s former prime minister and air force commander, Ahmed Shafiq, can restore peace and stability. Some around her voiced their disagreement. “I’m happy, but mostly scared,” said a middle-aged woman. “I’m 90 percent scared that the poll will be rigged as it’s always been in the past, and I’m 10 percent scared my candidate won’t be elected and we’ll get a foloul instead,” she told me, referring to the remnants of the old regime. “You know, Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s old allies.”

At 8:15, a polling station set up in an elementary girls’ school, hadn’t opened yet. The crowd, only women in this particular spot, was growing impatient. I didn’t see many youths — it was early, perhaps they were sleeping. A man tried to make his way through carrying a large crate bearing the name of a popular chips brand — ballots, I was told. Ten minutes later, another man arrived with a brown suitcase he carried on top of his head, ballots too. Several women burst into laughter.