As Egyptians Prepare To Vote, Jimmy Carter Watches 'Complete Transformation'

On All Things Considered today, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson will look ahead to Egypt's first free presidential election — voting begins Wednesday and is expected to lead to a mid-June runoff — and how some Egyptians who played roles in last year's revolution there are refusing to take part because they don't trust the military leaders who run the country.

As Sarah Hawas, 24-year-old film researcher, tells Soraya, "it's extremely difficult for anyone that has been struggling in this revolution from day one to trust — even superficially — that these elections mean anything but a referendum for continued military control."

Also on All Things Considered, NPR's Michele Kelemen has highlights from her conversation earlier today with former President Jimmy Carter, who is in Egypt. Staff from his Carter Center are observing the elections.

About the changes in Egypt, "this is a step-by-step process of a complete revolution deviating from a 60-year military dictatorship," said the former president, "to an absolutely free and unrestricted right of people to choose their own parliamentary members and their own president."

"It's a complete transformation," he continued, "which took the United States ... more than 12 years," from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution. "They're trying to do what we did in 12 years in this 18 months."

We'll add more from Michele's conversation with Carter to the top of this post later. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams All Things Considered.