A second day of voting has begun in Egypt in the first elections since former President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown with indications of a high turnout in Cairo and other big cities. The first day of polling for a new parliament was mainly peaceful. Voting was extended by two hours to cope with long queues and few security problems were reported. Many protesters occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square have boycotted the vote. There had been fears the vote might be delayed after deadly protests against the interim military rulers who replaced Mr Mubarak. The protesters fear the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, which is overseeing the transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian rule, is trying to retain power. At least 41 demonstrators have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded in the past 10 days, as tensions have flared in the Arab world's most populous state. Free expression The BBC's Kevin Connolly says most parties seem to agree that Egypt is on course for a record turnout. This is an indication, our correspondent says, of the pent-up appetite for democracy - allowed free expression at last. "It was no use to vote before. Our voices were completely irrelevant," Mona Abdel Moneim, one of several women who said they were voting for the first time, told the Agence France-Presse news agency in the Shubra district of Cairo. On Monday, long queues formed outside polling stations in Cairo before the polls opened and in places queues were said to have stretched up to 3km (two miles). "We were surprised that people turned out to vote in large numbers, thank God," Abdel Moez Ibrahim, who heads the High Judicial Elections Commission (HJEC), told reporters. Officials blamed a delay to the voting in some Cairo constituencies on the late arrival of ballot papers and a shortage of ink and administrative officers. Some judges observing the process got lost on their way to polling stations. State-run TV reported that 25 people were injured in election-related violence. But monitors reported no major violence or irregularities. In Assiut, in the south, the army said it had regained control after a shooting incident. Officials denied reports that voters there had attacked polling stations. There have also been reports that in Cairo and Port Said, candidates' numbers on voting cards had been changed. Leftist candidate Al-Badry Farghali, in Port Said, told the BBC this had happened to him and another candidate, George Ishaq, a well-known activist. 'Positive' Independent US observers said there was a high turnout on Monday, with no violence or irregularities. "What they've been able to see so far has been quite positive," US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters in Washington. Voters in nine provinces, including Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria and Assiut are voting in the first stage of a process extending until March. Other provinces take their turns through December and early January for elections to the 508-member People's Assembly. Voting for the upper house, or Shura Assembly, of parliament takes place after that and the presidential election is supposed to be held by mid-2012. About 50 million people are eligible to vote out of a population in excess of 85 million - with candidates from 50 registered political parties. The new parliament is expected to have a strong Islamist bloc led by the Muslim Brotherhood, liberal groupings and some reconditioned elements of Hosni Mubarak's old party. Much remains unclear about how the new parliament will function and whether it will be able to resolve a standoff with the armed forces over how much power they will retain under a new constitution to be written next year. Official results from the first phase of voting should be announced on Wednesday, but the final make-up of the lower and upper house of parliament will not be clear until March.