Egypt's incumbent President Hosni Mubarak cast his ballot at the Heliopolis polling station here Wednesday morning in the country's first direct multi-candidate presidential election.

President Mubarak cast the ballot together with his wife Suzanne and youngest son Gamal at 8:15 (0515 GMT) in a school in Heliopolis, a large Cairo neighborhood near the presidential palace, said the official MENA news agency.

Starting from around 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), about 32 million eligible Egyptian voters began to cast ballots to choose their president from among ten competing candidates, including Mubarak.

Mubarak, 77, has ruled the country since 1981 after his predecessor Anwar Sadat was gunned down by extreme Islamists who accused him of making peace with Israel.

Among his nine challengers, only two stands out, namely Noaman Gomaa, candidate of the liberal New Wafd Party and Ayman Nour, candidate of the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party. The remaining candidates are relatively little known to the public.

With all the campaigning activities, most analysts have predicted Mubarak will snatch a comfortable win given to the fact he has won respect at home as a force for stability and support of the United States as a key mediator in the Mideast peace process.

Source: Xinhua