Voters’ dilemma: Egyptians choosing president

Presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood casts his vote at a polling station at a school in Al-Sharqya (Reuters / Ahmed Jadallah) / Reuters

The first day of voting in Egypt's presidential election run-off is over. Egyptians are faced with a tough decision with the ballot coming amid mass indignation after both houses of Egypt's parliament were suspended by the Constitutional Court.

­The vote, which is taking place on Saturday and Sunday, represents the first free presidential election since the 2011 revolution. The two-man run-off sees Mohamed Morsi, the chairman of Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, and Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister of Egypt under ousted ex-leader Hosni Mubarak, going head to head.

Tensions are running high as voters cast their ballots. Thousandsof people have chosen to boycott the election saying neither candidate represents the values of last year's revolution.

In April, the Islamist-led parliament had sought to bar Ahmed Shafiq and any other high-ranking official from the Mubarak government from exercising "political rights for ten years."

Two days ago, on June 14, the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt decreed that Egypt’s lower house of parliament be dissolved, following a court verdict which determined that a hastily considered election law was illegal.

The court's decision overturned a law passed by the Islamist-led parliament. Now that the law has been thrown out, former PM Shafiq has the right to face off against Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in two days’ time.

The decision to dissolve the Islamist-dominated parliament is already being seen as a