Egyptian presidential election TV debate - live blog A woman walks past campaign posters of presidential candidates in Cairo. Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/REUTERS 2.54pm ET/7.54pm BST: A picture of Abul-Futoh prepping before the debate begins: 2.45pm ET/7.45pm BST: Time to try and get slightly serious, as debate will begin after the ad break. 2.40pm ET/7.40pm BST: Let the surrealism continue, as presenters discuss Sarah Palin and her debate with Joe Biden in 2008, excerpts from Saturday Night Live are aired with Tina Fey. 2.32pm ET/7.32pm BST: We're twenty minutes away now and Abul-Futoh seems to have arrived. The debate itself will be moderated by Yousri Fouda of ONTV and Mona Al-Shazly of Dream TV. Khafaga talks now about how under the Mubarak regime, conducting political polls needed a permit from the notorious state security apparatus and could get you arrested. You could however conduct polls on potatoes, Khafaga says. 2.31pm ET/7.31pm BST: Looks like the claim that this is the first Arab presidential debate won't go undisputed: 2.18pm ET/7.18pm BST: CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman isn't suprised by Cairo's notorious traffic: 2.16pm ET/7:16pm BST: Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futoh's media advisor tweeted: 2.14pm ET/7.14pm BST: Excerpts aired of the first televised presidential debates between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. Kennedy speaks and Nixon has no comment to make. The actual debate will be slightly delayed because Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futoh is stuck in traffic, a perfectly plausible excuse in Cairo. 2.06pm ET/7.06pm BST: Managing editor of Egypt Independent Lina Attalah tweeted: 2.03pm ET/6.03pm BST: Now footage of Amr in the draw. The draw also included whose name is to be announced first, and from which side each candidate will enter the debate. 2.01pm ET/7.01pm BST: Two senior pollsters were interviewed to explain the process behind their results that show Moussa and Abul Futoh are the frontrunners. Now Amr Khafaga expounds on the rules of the debate. Khafaga says their is no precedent for such an event in Egypt so they've borrowed the debate rules from the US, Egyptianizing it a bit. Each candidate will have a two-minute introduction, then will have two minutes to respond to the 24 questions from the panel. The candidates will also have the right to rebuttal on the other's comments every three questions in one minute, in which the other will have two minutes to respond. At the end of each of the two phases, candidates may ask each other one question. Each candidate will have two minutes at the end for closing remarks. The order of who goes first was decided by a draw, done before the show started, with the slips picked out by a small boy called Amr. 1.47pm ET/6.47pm BST: Khafaga explaining why only those two candidates are in tonight's debate. His reasoning is that they are the two who are ahead in all the pre-election polls. There were criticisms earlier today from the campaign of candidate Hamdein Sabahy regarding the debates, because there was a lot of speculation that certain candidates refused to appear with others, in this case candidate Ahmed Shafik had reservations about appearing with Sabahy. This might be because Sabahy was a staunch supporter of the revolution and Shafik was the Mubarak-appointed Prime Minister at the time. Would have been fun to watch that. 1.41pm ET/6.41pm BST: The presenters have appeared at the debate, reports Abdel-Rahman Hussein: We have Reem Maguid and Yousri Fouda from ONTV, Hafez Mirazi from Dream TV and Amr Khafaga, editor-in-chief of Al-Shurouk newspaper. Also in attendance is MP and member of the board of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Amr Al-Shobaki. Each one is currently giving a short introduction. The debate itself is about 40 minutes away. Mirazi says that the two candidates in today's debate are the frontrunners according to the polls. 1.09pm ET/6.09pm BST: Abdel-Rahman Hussein in Cairo will be sending in live updates from Egypt. Voters are taking to Twitter to express their excitement for the debate. 1pm ET/6pm BST: Tonight is a key moment for Egypt and Egyptian television. It's the country's first-ever presidential election TV debate. The protagonists are front-running candidates Amr Moussa (former foreign minister and former head of the Arab League) and Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh (formerly of the Muslim Brotherhood) and high-profile chat show host Mona el-Shazly will be posing the questions. There are hopes that the debate will break new ground in Arab election coverage, with some challenging questions and serious discussion of the issues, rather than the old-style obsequiousness. The format is that each candidate will be given two minutes to answer each question and will then be allowed to comment on each other's responses. Each candidate can also ask their opponent one question at the end of each half of the debate. The first half will focus on questions about the constitution and presidential powers, while the second half will deal with the candidates' electoral platforms, the judiciary, security and other topics. The debate is being broadcast by two privately-owned channels, ONTV and Dream, in cooperation with two privately-owned newspapers, Al-Masry Al-Youm and Al-Shorouk.