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Egyptians cast ballots Monday for a new president in an election widely expected to secure a resounding victory for military strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, one that will likely further entrench the army’s decades-long rule over the country.

Monday marked the first of two days of voting in which just two candidates, including former defense minister Sissi and leftist politician Hamdeen Sabbahi, are vying for the nation’s top office after Egypt’s first democratically elected president was ousted by the military last year.

Democratic legitimacy has been a difficult topic of conversation in Egypt following the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi’s government on July 3, 2013, by current presidential hopeful and former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Yet, as Egyptians pour into polling centers across the country on May 26 to vote for the sixth time in a political process since the 2011 revolution, what democratic legitimacy means, particularly in elections, will define state-society relations for years to come.

Egyptians are voting on Monday and Tuesday in elections to choose a new president after the military's ouster last year of the country's first democratically elected leader, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi.

Considered all but certain to win is the man who removed Morsi — retired military chief Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who for the past 10 months has been the most powerful figure in Egypt. The only other candidate in the race is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished third in the 2012 presidential election.

Egyptian Interim President Adly Mansour is scheduled to give a televised speech Sunday ahead of the country's presidential elections, state-owned media agency MENA reported.

Mansour was head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court before taking up the interim presidency following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013.

Egyptians are expected to cast their ballots across the country Monday and Tuesday, fulfiling the next steps in the political roadmap announced by then-Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Morsi's removal.

European diplomats in Egypt say they are hoping that the decision of the Egyptian government to facilitate a European Union (EU) observer mission monitor the presidential elections scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, 26-27 May, across the nation is an indication of a new inclination on the side of authorities to accommodate some the basics of democracy and political freedoms.

The committee tasked with amending the Political Participation Law and the Parliamentary Elections Law finalised the draft of the latter legislation on Wednesday.

Interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree on 14 April creating the said committee to amend the laws in preparation for the coming parliamentary elections. The committee is headed by Mohamed Amin El-Mahdy, Minister of Transitional Justice and House of Representatives.