Egyptians went to polls on Wednesday morning to elect a new president after the fall of ex-President Hosni Mubarak last year.

An Egyptian man casts his ballot inside a polling station in Cairo on May 23, 2012, during the country's historic presidential election, the first since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak.[Xinhua]

Roughly a dozen candidates will run for the presidential race, which?is expected to be the most free and fair of its kind in the past 60 years in Egypt.

Egypt's 50 million eligible voters are expected to turn out in force to determine who will lead the country after the generals who have overseen a transition marred by violence, protests and political deadlock formally hand over by July 1.

It will be the first time that ordinary Egyptians, ruled down the centuries by pharaohs, sultans, kings and military officers, will have a genuine chance to choose their leader.

Government employees have one day off for the voting. School classes were halted.

"Of course I will vote. I want change. We can't stay in this messy situation for the rest of our lives," said Wael Azmy, an accountant, who has taken Wednesday off work to give him time to join the queues he expects to form outside polling stations.

The polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) across the country under tight security of police and troops. There were long queues in front of many polling stations in Cairo. Polling stations close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) for the two-day voting.

To ensure the transparency and fairness of the elections, 14, 500 judges and 65,000 public servants were deployed nationwide to monitor the process. Three foreign civil society organizations and 49 local ones were allowed to observe the event. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is also in Egypt to monitor the election with his Carter Center.

The one-week voting for overseas Egyptians ended on May 17, with the results yet to be announced.

The ruling military council has vowed to ensure free and fair elections and urged citizens to participate.

Citizens' participation would send a message to the world that the polls are conducted in free will, said Major General Mohamed el-Assar, member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Tuesday.

The general told reporters that people would accept the results and that the new president would meet their demands.

Analysts say it is unlikely to have a clear winner in the first round as votes will much divided among popular candidates. The run-off will be held in June. To win the election requires a candidate to win over 50 percent of the votes.

The results of the presidential polls will be announced on June 21. The SCAF, who took over power from Mubarak, is expected to transfer power to the new president by June 30, which marks the end of the transitional period.

As the standoff about the constituent assembly remains, the new president's power is not clear.

Early this year, Egyptians elected a new parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and Salafist Nour Party occupy more than 70 percent of its seats.

The competition for the presidency is mainly between Islamists and secular politicians.

There is little reliable survey data to give any indication of which candidate will emerge as head of state.

But whoever wins faces a huge task to deliver changes that Egyptians expect to relieve a grim economic outlook. The military that was a pillar of Mubarak's rule is likely to remain a powerful political force for years.

The army, whose senior ranks also have extensive commercial interests, insists it does not want to hang onto power.

"With these elections, we will have completed the last step in the transitional period," General Mohamed el-Assar told a news conference on the eve of voting.