CAIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Egypt's Presidential Election Commission has decided to allow independent groups into polling stations to monitor the presidential election which kicked off early Wednesday.

    "Civil society groups can visit polling stations on condition that they do not interfere in or block the elections process," the commission said in a statement faxed to Xinhua.

    Monitoring of the polls has been a contentious topic in the runup to the election as the Presidential Election Commission had refused to allow foreign monitors or independent monitors from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) into the pollings stations. 

  The commission maintained that the country's judiciary could provide full supervising of the process.

    Egyptian voters began early Wednesday to cast ballots to choose their president from among ten competing candidates in the country's first direct multi-candidate presidential election. Enditem