Cairo dispute triggers gunfight as Egypt votes

Mohammed Abed / AFP - Getty Images

Egyptian security forces help a woman after she voted at a polling station in Cairo on Sunday.

By msnbc.com news services

CAIRO - A dispute between street vendors in Cairo turned into a gunfight in the early hours of Sunday, the last of two days of voting in the Egyptian presidential election runoff,?with conflicting casualty tolls that could not be immediately confirmed.?

The website of the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the army and police had deployed to contain the confrontation in the Cairo district of Sayyeda Aisha.?The Al-Ahram?report did not give a casualty figure.?

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But the website of the independent Al-Youm Al-Sabie newspaper said two people had been killed and 15 wounded.?

In upscale Cairo suburb, many vote for the revolution

Al-Shorouk, another independent newspaper, said on its website the violence had claimed eight lives. The news reports began to filter out around 2 a.m. and officials could not immediately be reached for comment.?

NBC's Richard Engel reports from Cairo, Egypt, where citizens are hitting the polls to choose between two contrasting candidates.

The election pits the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, a U.S.-trained engineer,?against Ahmed Shafik, deposed Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister.

Both have promised to restore law and order, which Egyptians complain has been lax since Mubarak's rule was brought to an end by a mass uprising last year.?

Egyptians protest against old regime day before presidential election

The runoff, once billed as the country's long-awaited shift to democracy, was clouded by pessimism over the future. ?Whoever wins after two days of voting, Egypt's military rulers will remain ultimately at the helm, a sign of how Egypt's revolution has gone astray 16 months after millions forced the authoritarian Mubarak to step down in the name of freedom.?

"We are forced to make this choice. We hate them both," said Sayed Zeinhom at Cairo's Boulak el-Dakrour, a densely populated maze of narrow dirt alleys and shoddily built houses. Mahmoud el-Fiqi, waiting with him at a polling center, offered, "Egypt is confused."?

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report

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