Protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square were set upon by gangs described as “groups of club-wielding thugs” on Tuesday. Dozens of injuries were reported along with eyewitness accounts of gunfire and the hurling of Molotov cocktails. Against this backdrop, Egypt’s leaders were boasting of two days of peaceful elections in the first phase of parliamentary voting. Officials pointed out that complaints of irregularities at the polls were negligible while news organizations portrayed the contrast between voters making real choices as opposed to 30-years of voting under the rule of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Cairo and Alexandria have now voted, and the next two phases – in December and January — will see the remainder of the country have their turns at selecting members of parliament. The voting apparently eased pressure on the ruling military council which had been the target of mass protests calling for it to hand over control to a civil authority right up until the polls opened — with the exception of the unrest in Tahrir Square.