Mixed press after Egypt vote

President Hosni Mubarak is widely expected to win by a landslide

The press in Egypt offers widely different reactions to the country's first contested presidential election.

While pro-government papers overflow with praise for what they see as the start of a new democratic era, independent and opposition papers highlight flaws in the vote and the need for faster and more radical reform.

"Egypt enters the era of the elected president," is the front-page headline in the state-owned al-Ahram, while Ruz al-Yusuf hails "Egypt without pharaohs, sovereignty for the people".

"A new chapter opened yesterday in Egypt's modern history. A new stage has begun in the building of the nation," al-Ahram says in its editorial.

Al-Gomhuriya is similarly gushing in its praise. "History will mark this day as the most memorable day in Egypt, when people created democracy on their own."

All pro-government papers feature reports and photos from polling stations across Egypt stressing the "high turnout", despite claims by some observers that voter participation was low.

Disgrace

Under the headline "The disgrace of the elections", the paper of the opposition al-Ahrar party focuses on claims of irregularities.

However, such allegations bring out a hint of steel in one of the state-owned papers, Al-Akhbar, which warns that this kind of thing no longer has a place in the new political dispensation.

"It would be wrong for a party, or a candidate, to use false reasons to justify his loss," it says, with results expected to hand President Hosni Mubarak a comfortable victory.

"Accusations of vote-rigging will stain and discredit this great and pioneering experiment which we all must work together to make succeed and continue.

What next?

Many commentators are already looking beyond the elections, with some showing signs of impatience with the government's gradualist approach to democratisation.

"What Egypt needs now is drastic political changes, not a president who puts forward democratic plans," says the influential pan-Arab paper al-Quds al-Arabi.

The paper of Egypt's opposition al-Wafd party believes the vote - while flawed - has mainly served to throw the need to end one-party rule into stark relief.

"The presidential election campaign has revealed that the country is on the edge of an abyss," the paper says.

"Those hidden issues in all aspects of our political, economic and social lives have been uncovered, and they all stem from the one-party tyranny of the last for half a century and the corruption that has spread as a result."

'Experiment'

Even a commentary in the state-owned al-Ahram appears to acknowledge that the election was far from a perfect democratic choice, calling it an "experiment" in popular sovereignty.

"The real benefit of the elections was not to be a search for the best alternative as much as a humble attempt to teach the people the freedoms of choice and decision making," it says, and urges patience.

"Its success will be measured, after results are announced, with the political and constitutional changes that it brings about, reshaping our future."

The independent daily al-Misri al-Yawm believes more representative parliamentary elections are the next logical step, despite feats that this may boost the banned Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We need, if only once, to see the real strength of the Muslim Brotherhood in a proportional election, " the paper says.

"We will then see that they are neither as powerful nor as large as we think or as some would make us believe for reasons of their own."

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.