Elections: 1

Last night was the biggest and most terrifying storm we have experienced since being here; all four of us were woken at exactly 3am by the roar of thunderclouds directly above Wabuur al Maya that rattled windows and doors and kept us awake, shaken and freezing cold, for about an hour afterwards. WHAT DID I SAY.

So far this morning there appears to have been no trouble on the streets of Alexandria as people queue up at hurriedly-installed polling stations to cast their vote - probably because there is no fear that anything will actually work. Al Jazeera's correspondent carefully described the situation as "a rocky start" when in fact it has been so far what many had expected all along: a bit of a joke. Truckloads of ballot papers have yet to arrive, judges are running late or neglecting to appear at all, ink is in short supply and many of the lines have remained more or less immobile for hours.

But the situation is calm, for the time being. Below are a few images from our road in Wabuur al Maya, where a male polling station has been set up on the street beside the rubbish dump, and a female one up in the primary school. We were woken at 10am today by a vehicle outside equipped with booming speakers proclaiming something about teaching, and something about brotherhood, followed by several minutes of corny music. Surely if the average Egyptian has not decided who to vote for by now, such a spectacle is not going to sway them. But there you are.

More on today as things progress..