Cairo, Egypt - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was expected on Thursday to win a fifth term in power after an election tipped as a major democratic step but marred by reports of widespread fraud.

As vote counting began across the Arab world's populous country, Wednesday's historic election drew a barrage of fraud allegations from Mubarak's rivals and independent monitors.

Forced voting, paid voters, unmanned polling stations and missing indelible ink were only some of the accusations reported by monitors, who pinned most of the blame on Mubarak's supporters.

Results were not expected before late on Thursday at the earliest, but the country's judges -- tasked with supervising the polling process -- had warned before the vote that they would not endorse them.

Government officials were pleased with the polling process, however.

"Despite the few violations mentioned by some ... we are in front of a unique and an unprecedented experience," Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi said after polling stations closed.

"The electoral process until 10pm was as good as could have been envisioned," said electoral commission secretary general Osama Attawiya.

But opposition activists, who demonstrated on Wednesday to urge a boycott of an election they deemed unfair, were already planning protests against the election for later in the week.

There was no comment from Mubarak's camp, as his campaign managers were busy compiling exit polls.

Estimates released by the four-term president's main rival, Ghad party leader Ayman Nur, indicated that turnout stood between 15% and 20% in rural areas and hovered between 3% and 5% in cities.

A top aide to Nur -- who described the vote as a "defining moment in Egypt's history" -- claimed the fiery 40-year-old lawyer should obtain between 30% and 55% of the vote, if the election was not rigged.


'MASS FRAUD' EXPECTED

Nur's deputy, Hisham Kassem, said he expected mass fraud would take place during the counting.

The Wafd party of Nur's main rival for second spot, Numan Gumaa, also alleged "unacceptable abuses" during the voting on the part of Mubarak supporters.

"I am very disappointed. I was not expecting a perfect election ... but the extent of the irregularities and their premeditation was unacceptable," senior Wafd official Munir Abdel Nur said.

The seven other candidates who took part in the landmark poll were unknown to even most of Egypt's 32-million registered voters.

Most of Egypt's 9 865 polling stations closed at 10pm after 14 hours of voting, with only a few hundred people still queueing up to vote when the deadline expired, mainly in rural areas.

Mubarak, the 77-year-old former air-force commander who has ruled Egypt for 24 years, was the first of the 10 candidates to cast his ballot and was greeted by a large group of chanting supporters.

It is the first election where Mubarak has faced challengers and follows intense international and domestic pressure for reform in a country still ruled under a state of emergency imposed after Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.


MUBARAK 'HAS NOTHING TO LOSE'

Voters who trickled into polling stations in Cairo did not appear to have any illusions about the result.

"I think I will vote for Mubarak. He is old and has nothing to lose any more. Maybe he will decide to leave a legacy of democracy. The others are too thirsty for power and money," said 27-year-old truck driver Amr Ezz al-Arab, from Cairo's City of the Dead.

"I don't think he will deliver on his campaign pledges to create jobs and build factories, but Mubarak is our fate," unemployed 49-year-old Alaeddin Mahmud, also a resident of one of the world's largest inhabited cemeteries.

Independent monitors reported a litany of irregularities at polling stations, complaining they had been beaten, apprehended and interrogated by security services in several places.

Several rights groups said Mubarak supporters actively campaigned throughout the day and reported that some had voted on behalf of other people.

Delegates for Nur's Ghad party cited the case of a man who arrived at a polling station in southern Egypt only to find out that somebody had already voted for him, and reported on places where indelible ink was not being used, or where no identity papers were being requested.

In a new-style campaign crafted by his influential son and possible successor Gamal, Mubarak appealed to the country's poor, pledging to create more than four million jobs and increase wages.

The man dubbed "the last pharaoh" was re-elected in 1999 with 93,79% of the vote but according to independent estimates, turnout reached barely 10% in the previous elections he won unopposed.

The regime has trumpeted the poll as a watershed in the country's democratisation, but the Muslim Brotherhood -- Egypt's best-organised opposition force -- was barred from fielding a candidate as it remains banned.