“The former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions,” President Bush said in a midday televised address from the White House, eight months after American troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam’s regime. “In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived.”

Washington hopes Saddam’s capture will help break the organized Iraq resistance that has killed more than 190 American soldiers since Bush declared major combat over on May 1 and has set back efforts at reconstruction.

But Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which captured Saddam, said the ousted leader did not appear to be directly organizing resistance — noting no communication devices were found in his hiding place. “I believe he was there more for moral support,” Odierno said.

Saddam’s capture was based on information from a member of a family “close to him,” Odierno told reporters in Tikrit. “Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals,” he said.

The capture took place at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at one of dozens of safehouses Saddam is thought to have: a walled compound on a farm in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit, not far from one of Saddam’s former palaces, Odierno said.

“I think it’s rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces that he built,” Odierno told reporters in Tikrit.

The event comes almost five months after his sons, Qusai and Odai, were killed July 22 in a four-hour gunbattle with U.S. troops in a hideout in the northern city of Mosul. There was hope at the time that the sons’ deaths would dampen the Iraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation. But since then, the guerrilla campaign has mounted dramatically.

In the latest attack, a suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station Sunday morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. military said. Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier died while trying to disarm a roadside bomb south of the capital — the 452nd soldier to die in Iraq.

Saddam was one of the most-wanted fugitives in the world, along with Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network who has not been caught despite a manhunt since November 2001, when the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference. “The tyrant is a prisoner.”

Some 600 troops and special forces were involved in the raid that netted Saddam — though not all were aware beforehand that the objective was “High Value Target No. 1,” Odierno said.

Troops found the ousted leader, armed with a pistol, hiding in an underground crawl space at the walled compound, Odierno said. The entrance to the hiding place, covered with rugs and dirt, was a few feet from small, mud-brick hut where Saddam had been staying.

The hut consisted of two rooms, a bedroom with clothes scattered about and a “rudimentary kitchen,” Odierno said. The commander said Saddam likely had been there only a short time, noting that new shirts, still unwrapped, were found in the bedroom.

Saddam was “very disoriented” as soldiers brought him out of the hole, Odierno said. A Pentagon diagram showed the hiding place as a 6-foot-deep vertical tunnel, with a shorter tunnel branching out horizontally from one side. A pipe to the concrete surface at ground level provided air.

Saddam didn’t fire his weapon. “There was no way he could fight back so he was just caught like a rat,” Odierno said.

Two other Iraqis — described as low-level regime figures — were arrested in the raid, and soldiers found two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in $100 bills.

A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Saddam admitted his identity when captured.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader “has been cooperative and is talkative.” He described Saddam as “a tired man, a man resigned to his fate.”

“He was unrepentant and defiant,” said Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior official of a Shiite Muslim political party who, along with other Iraqi leaders, visited Saddam in captivity.

“When we told him, ‘If you go to the streets now, you will see the people celebrating,”‘ Abdel-Mahdi said. “He answered, ‘Those are mobs.’ When we told him about the mass graves, he replied, ‘Those are thieves.”‘

The official added: “He didn’t seem apologetic. He seemed defiant, trying to find excuses for the crimes in the same way he did in the past.”

The White House said Saddam’s capture assures the Iraqi people that the deposed leader is gone from power for good.

“The Iraqi people can finally be assured that Saddam Hussein will not be coming back — they can see it for themselves,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Eager to prove to Iraqis that Saddam was in custody, Sanchez played a video at the news conference showing the 66-year-old Saddam in custody.

Saddam, with a thick, graying beard and bushy, disheveled hair, was seen as doctor examined him, feeling his scalp and holding his mouth open with a tongue depressor, apparently to get a DNA sample. Saddam blinked and touched his beard during the exam. Then the video showed a picture of Saddam after he was shaved, juxtaposed for comparison with an old photo of the Iraqi leader while in power.

Iraqi journalists at the press conference stood, pointed and shouted “Death to Saddam!” and “Down with Saddam!”

Though the raid occurred Saturday afternoon American time, U.S. officials went to great length to keep it quiet until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam’s identity.

DNA tests confirmed Saddam’s identity, said the president of Iraqi Governing Council, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

Saddam was being held at an undisclosed location, and U.S. authorities have not yet determined whether to hand him over to the Iraqis for trial or what his status would be. Iraqi officials want him to stand trial before a war crimes tribunal created last week.

Amnesty International said Sunday that Saddam should be given POW status and allowed visits by the international Red Cross.

Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council, said Saddam will be put on trial.

“Saddam will stand a public trial so that the Iraqi people will know his crimes,” Chalabi told Al-Iraqiya, a Pentagon-funded TV station.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the capture, saying the deposed leader “has gone from power, he won’t be coming back.”

“Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq,” Blair said.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital, and shop owners closed their doors, fearful that the shooting would make the streets unsafe.

“I’m very happy for the Iraqi people. Life is going to be safer now,” said 35-year-old Yehya Hassan, a resident of Baghdad. “Now we can start a new beginning.”

Earlier in the day, rumors of the capture sent people streaming into the streets of Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, firing guns in the air in celebration.

“We are celebrating like it’s a wedding,” said Kirkuk resident Mustapha Sheriff. “We are finally rid of that criminal.”

Still, many Baghdadis were skeptical.

“I heard the news, but I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mohaned al-Hasaji, 33. “They need to show us that they really have him.”

Ayet Bassem, 24, walked out of a shop with her 6-year-old son.

“Things will be better for my son,” she said. “Everyone says everything will be better when Saddam is caught. My son now has a future.”

After invading Iraq on March 20 and setting up their headquarters in Saddam’s sprawling Republican Palace compound in Baghdad, U.S. troops launched a massive manhunt for the fugitive leader, placing a $25 million bounty on his head and sending thousands of soldiers to search for him.

Saddam proved elusive during the war, when at least two dramatic military strikes came up empty in their efforts to assassinate him. Since then, he has appeared in both video and audio tapes. U.S. officials named him No. 1 on their list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, the Ace of Spades in a special deck of most-wanted cards.

Saddam’s capture leaves 13 figures still at large from the list. The highest ranking figure among them is Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a close Saddam aide who U.S. officials have said may be directly organizing resistance.

The new case, which was referred to trial, was interpreted as a timely attempt by Egypt’s military rulers to assuage anger over the possible ascent to the presidency of Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak and, like his mentor, a former air force commander. Shafiq is widely viewed as an extension of the Mubarak regime remembered for authoritarianism, corruption and a brutal police force.

“It’s an attempt to ease the popular anger over Shafiq,” said Shady el-Ghazali Harb, a key leader of the anti-Mubarak uprising. “It is a theatrical move by the generals to create the illusion that there is no question of showing leniency to the old regime.”

Mubarak and his two sons, the one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa, are already on trial for separate charges of corruption. They have all been in prison since April 2011, two months after a popular, 18-day uprising forced Mubarak to step down after 29 years in office.

Mubarak, 84 and ailing, faces additional charges of complicity in the death of some 900 protesters during the uprising. But his sons are not charged in the protester killings. The former leader could get the death penalty if convicted on the charges linked to killing protesters.

A statement by the prosecutor-general’s office on the new charges said the Mubarak sons, along with seven others, made 2 billion Egyptian pounds in illicit gains. Their actions violated central bank and stock market regulations, it said.

The nine are accused of conspiring to stealthily buy a controlling 80 percent stake in Al Watany Bank of Egypt without declaring their share to the stock market authority, it added. They later traded its shares through closed funds and investment companies based abroad.

“They deliberately withheld this essential information on the sale of the bank from other share traders to execute their criminal plot and violate the principles of transparency and equality between traders,” said the statement. It did not specify the role of each of the nine defendants nor announce a date for the trial.

The seven other defendants are free on bail but banned from leaving the country.

The prosecutor’s statement said Gamal, 48, unlawfully made a profit of nearly 500 million Egyptian pounds from the sale of the Al Watany Bank of Egypt and that his brother Alaa, believed to be around 50, used insider information about the bank to reap an illegal profit of some 12 million Egyptian pounds.

Two of the seven men charged along with the Mubarak sons are the joint chief executive officers of Hermes, one of the Middle East’s top investment banks with branches in nine Arab nations. They are Yasser El-Malawny and Hassan Heikal, son of Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, Egypt’s best known political writer and a longtime confidante of the late Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

Late Wednesday, Hermes said in a statement that its two chief executives acted properly in the aqcuisition of the Al Watany bank, in which the National Bank of Kuwait took nearly a 100 percent stake in November 2007.

“The two chief executive officers had no personal interest, gain or any dealings or trading in the shares of the Al Watany Bank of Egypt,” it said, adding that the company has taken the necessary legal actions to defend them.

The three Mubaraks, along with the ousted leader’s security chief and four of his top aides, will hear the court’s verdict on the case already in progress on June 2.

Gamal Mubarak was viewed by many as a corrupt politician who used his father’s position to illegally amass a fortune while working along with a coterie of regime-backed wealthy businessmen and powerful politicians to ensure that he succeeded his father.

He rapidly rose to the top of his father’s ruling National Democratic Party to become its de facto boss on the eve of his father’s ouster, when he also was effectively running Egypt’s day-to-day affairs. At the time of the uprising, there was growing anxiety in Egypt that his succession was imminent. That anxiety is seen as one of the key sparks for the uprising that overthrew Mubarak.

Many of Gamal’s closest allies are among some three dozen regime stalwarts in detention facing charges of corruption. Some of them have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms.

The new charges came two days after Shafiq was officially declared one of two top vote-getters in the first round of presidential elections held on May 23-24. Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi will now go head-to-hear in a runoff vote on June 16-17. The winner will be announced June 21, the last step before the generals are due to hand over power.

A Shafiq presidency would mean the continuation of de facto military rule in Egypt, where all four presidents since the overthrow of the monarchy nearly 60 years have been of military background.

Shafiq’s qualification to the runoff has angered many Egyptians who see him as an extension of the old regime and an affront to the uprising that, among other things, sought to end military rule. Several hundred protesters stormed, vandalized and set ablaze his campaign headquarters in Cairo late on Monday night, just hours after the official results were announced.

Other protesters in Cairo and a string of cities in northern Egypt tore down his campaign posters.

Michael Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation, said the announcement of new charges is the latest measure by the ruling generals who took over from Mubarak against their old regime rivals — Gamal Mubarak, his brother along with the businessmen and politicians who threw their weight behind the succession scheme. The military primarily opposed the succession because it would end the military’s decades-old grip on the land’s highest office.

“Today’s announcement fits a pattern of prosecuting politicians and businessmen viewed by the military as a threat to its interests when it has been nearly impossible to convict policeman accused of killing protesters.”

Earlier Wednesday, a criminal court convicted and sentenced to five years in prison a policeman for his part in the shooting death of 18 protesters on January 28, last year, the bloodiest day of the uprising. Mohammed el-Sunni had been sentenced to death earlier when he was on the run. Thursday’s verdict came after a retrial that followed his surrender to authorities.

But his conviction followed multiple court cases in which policemen charged with killing protesters have been acquitted or received light sentences.

But the swiftness of the Brotherhood’s claim showed its eagerness to plant its flag and establish in the public eye that Morsi had at least won entry into a second round vote. There are five prominent candidates, but none is expected to win outright in the first round. A run-off between the two leading contenders would be held June 16-17.

The first truly competitive presidential election in Egypt’s history turned into a heated battle between Islamist candidates and secular figures rooted in Mubarak’s old regime. The most polarizing figures in the race were Morsi and former air force commander and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, a veteran of Mubarak’s rule.

The Brotherhood is hoping for a presidential victory to seal its political domination of Egypt, which would be a dramatic turnaround from the decades it was repressed under Mubarak. It already holds nearly half of parliament after victories in elections late last year.

The group has promised a “renaissance” of Egypt, not only reforming Mubarak-era corruption and reviving decrepit infrastructure, but also bringing a greater degree of rule by Islamic law. That prospect has alarmed more moderate Muslims, secular Egyptians and the Christian minority, who all fear restrictions on civil rights and worry that the Brotherhood shows similar domineering tendencies as Mubarak.

“I think we are on the verge of a new era. We trusted God, we trusted in the people, we trusted in our party,” prominent Brotherhood figure Essam el-Erian said at a news conference at which the group claimed its lead.

Morsi’s campaign spokesman, Murad Mohammed Ali, cited exit polls conducted by Brotherhood campaign workers nationwide, though he declined to give percentages for Morsi’s lead.

Regional television channels, citing their own exit polls, also placed Morsi as the top finisher, with a tussle for second place between Shafiq, moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi.

Across the country, election workers cracked open the transparent ballot boxes — sealed by serial-numbered plastic bands to ensure they had not been tampered with — and began working their way through the paper ballots. By 1 a.m. Friday, four hours after polls closed, results from about 5 percent of the 13,000 polling stations emerged, putting Morsi on top at 35 percent, followed by Shafiq with 22 percent and Abolfotoh with 16 percent.

Voter turnout appeared far lighter on Thursday than the opening day of balloting Wednesday. But those in line where still revved up on the fervor of choosing after decades of having no voice in deciding their leader.

“I like the personality of Shafiq. He is strong enough to lift the country,” said Suheir Abdel-Mumin, one of several women standing in line waiting to vote in the Cairo district of el-Zawiya al-Hamra.

Somaiya Imam, still undecided on whom to choose, replied with a reference to Islamist candidates, saying: “Don’t you think we should vote for the candidate who holds the Quran?”

“We voted for them before and they let us down,” Abdel-Mumin responded, referring to the Brotherhood’s victories in last year’s parliamentary elections. “They want everything — the presidency, parliament and government. They are never satisfied.”

A woman standing behind the two joined in: “But he (Shafiq) is a Mubarak associate.”

The Brotherhood faced a backlash from many of the voters who supported it in the parliament election but later grew disillusioned. Some accused it of trying to overly monopolize power and breaking earlier promises not to run for president. Others felt it simply had not produced any accomplishments with its parliament dominance — though the ruling military has severely hampered the parliament.

Still, Morsi enjoyed the might of the Brotherhood’s well-organized electoral machine, the nation’s strongest.

“We need a president who gets rid of the former corrupt and oppressive system and brings Egypt back to the position it deserves economically and internationally,” said Rizk Mohammed, a contractor voting with his family in Cairo — all for Morsi. He defended the Brotherhood against claims it was trying to monopolize all power, saying pro-Mubarak media were fomenting that idea.

Also, the anti-Islamist vote was divided. Shafiq and former foreign minister Amr Moussa and Shafiq split the votes of many who craved a familiar face that could bring stability. Sabahi, as well as Abolfotoh, siphoned votes of those who could not bear to vote for a “feloul” — or “remnant” of the old regime — or a hard-core Islamist.

Moussa, who had been leading in many pre-election polls, appeared to have suffered the most.

During the day Thursday, he blasted Shafiq in an interview on Al-Arabiya television, accusing him of planning to bring back Mubarak’s regime and demanding he quit the race.

“The Shafiq campaign is calling for the re-creation of the past and it will take the country back to the time before the revolution,” Moussa said, looking rattled with his hair unkempt.

He also made a last-minute appearance to reporters outside his Cairo campaign headquarters with a plea for supporters to vote — a suggestion his own exit polling showed him faltering.

“I call on all Egyptians, male and female, to go out in these last two hours and vote,” he said.

Both Shafiq and the Brotherhood’s Morsi have repeatedly spoken of the dangers, real or imaginary, of the other becoming president. Morsi has said there would be massive street protests if a “feloul” wins, arguing it could only be the result of rigging.

Shafiq, on his part, has said it would be “unacceptable” if an Islamist takes the presidential office, echoing the rhetoric of Mubarak, his longtime mentor who devoted much of his 29-year rule to fighting Islamists. Still, Shafiq’s campaign has said it would accept the election’s result.

Reports of voting violations seemed relatively limited. The Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development reported fistfights between supporters of Morsi, Shafiq, Abolfotoh and Moussa, and some incidents of money being given to voters. It also reported some attempts to influence voters at the polls, including women wearing the all-covering veil campaigning for Morsi inside polling centers.

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AP correspondents Sarah El Deeb and Lee Keath contributed to this report.

But in the lines at the polls, voters were palpably excited at the chance to decide their country’s path in the vote, which is the fruit of last year’s stunning popular revolt that overthew Mubarak after 29 years in power. For the past 60 years, Egypt’s presidents running unchallenged have largely been re-affirmed in yes-or-no referendums that few bothered to vote in.

Mohammed Salah, 26, emerged grinning from a poll station, fresh from casting his ballot. “Before, they used to take care of that for me,” he said. “Today, I am choosing for myself.”

Medhat Ibrahim, 58, who suffers from cancer, had tears in his eyes. “I might die in a matter of months, so I came for my children, so they can live,” he said, waiting to vote in a poor Cairo district. “We want to live better, like human beings.”

Adding to the drama, this election is up in the air. The reliability of polls is unsure, and four of the 13 candidates candidates have bounced around the top spots, leaving no clear single front-runner. None is likely to win outright in Wednesday and Thursday’s balloting, so the top two vote-getters enter a run-off June 16-17, with the victor announced June 21.

The two secular front-runners are both veterans of Mubarak’s regime — former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and former foreign minister Amr Moussa.

The main Islamist contenders are Mohammed Morsi of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a moderate Islamist whose inclusive platform has won him the support of some liberals, leftists and minority Christians.

The debate went right up to the doorsteps of schools around the country where polls were set up.

Some voters backed Mubarak-era veterans, believing they can bring stability after months of rising crime, a crumbling economy and bloody riots. Others were horrified by the thought, believing the “feloul” — or “remnants” of the regime — will keep Egypt locked in dictatorship and thwart democracy.

Islamists, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, saw their chance to lead a country where they were repressed for decades and to implement their version of Islamic law. Their critics recoiled, fearing theocracy.

Some saw an alternative to both in a leftist candidate, Hamdeen Sabahi, who has claimed the mantle of Egypt’s first president, the populist Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

An Islamist victory, particularly by Morsi, will likely mean a greater emphasis on religion in government. His Muslim Brotherhood, which already dominates parliament, says it won’t mimic Saudi Arabia and force women to wear veils or implement harsh punishments like amputations. But it says it does want to implement a more moderate version of Islamic law, which liberals fear will mean limitations on many rights.

Many of the candidates have called for amendments in Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which remains deeply unpopular. None is likely to dump it, but a victory by any of the Islamist or leftist candidates in the race could mean strained ties with Israel and a stronger stance in support of the Palestinians in the peace process.

The candidates from the Mubarak’s regime — and, ironically, the Brotherhood, which has already held multiple talks with U.S. officials — are most likely to maintain the alliance with the United States.

A looming question is whether either side will accept victory by the other. Islamists have warned of new protests if Shafiq wins, which they say can only happen by fraud. Many are convinced the ruling military wants a victory by Shafiq, a former air force commander.

“Over my dead body will Shafiq or Moussa win. Why not just bring back Mubarak?” said Saleh Zeinhom, a merchant backing Abolfotoh. “I’m certain we’ll have a bloodbath after the elections cause the military council won’t hand power to anyone but Shafiq.”

Shafiq was met by several dozen protesters screaming “down with the feloul” as he arrived to vote in an upscale neighborhood east of Cairo. Some protesters showed their contempt by holding up their shoes in his direction.

Shafiq, who was Mubarak’s last prime minister until he too was forced out of his post by protests, has been openly disparaging of the pro-democracy youth groups who led the anti-Mubarak uprising. Critics view him as too close to the generals who took over from Mubarak and whose own reputation is tainted by human rights abuses and authoritarian tendencies.

But with his strongman image, he has appealed to Egyptians who crave stability and fear Islamists.

“The country is going under. We need a president that implements justice and brings back security. Bottom line,” said Essam el-Khatib, a government employee voting in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.

Nearby another man, Sayed Attiya, shouted, “What Shafiq? We didn’t have a revolution to bring back Shafiq!”

The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, faced a backlash of its own.

The group was the biggest winner in parliament elections late last year, winning nearly half the seats. But it disillusioned some by seeming too power hungry, demanding to be allowed to form a government and trying to dominate a panel created to draft a new constitution. The panel was scrapped and the process of writing the vital new charter is on hold as politicians struggle over forming a new one.

The image it has cultivated as an advocate of tolerance and piety was damaged by its campaign to discredit Abolfotoh, who quit the Brotherhood to run for president, and its edict that it is a sin to vote for anyone not advocating implementation of Islamic Shariah law.

Outside a polling station in the village of Ikhsas, outside Cairo, a group of neighbors got into a friendly but frank debate.

“I voted Brotherhood for parliament but I find they are inflexible in their opinions and want to take everything. I can’t now find them in the country’s top job,” Bassem Saber, a 31-year-old accountant dressed in the traditional local robes, told the circle of men. He now backs Abolfotoh.

Khaled el-Zeini, a Brotherhood backer, said people were being unfair.

Fares Kamel, a local trader, interjected with a shout against the Brothers, “We loved them and wanted them but we realized they are all about monopolizing power.”

But the group has a powerful electoral machine.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Brotherhood vans ferried women supporters to the polls in the poor neighborhood of Abu Suleiman, one of the group’s strongholds. The women, in headscarves or covered head to toe in black robes and veils that hid their faces, filed into the station.

“I want to give the Brotherhood a chance to rule,” said Aida Ibrahim, a veteran Brotherhood member who was helping voters find their station. “If it doesn’t work, they will be held accountable,” she said.

Some Brotherhood supporters cited the group’s years of providing charity to the poor — including reduced-price meat, and free medical care.

“Whoever fills the tummy gets the vote,” said Naima Badawi, a housewife sitting on her doorstep watching voters in Abu Sir, one of the many farming villages near the Pyramids being sucked into Cairo’s urban sprawl.

There were only a few reports of overt violations of election rules Wednesday, mainly concerning candidates’ backers campaigning near polling stations. Three international monitoring organizations, including the U.S.’s Carter Center, were observing the vote. Former President Jimmy Carter, the center’s head, visited a polling station in the ancient Cairo district of Sayeda Aisha.

The election’s winner will face a monumental task. The economy has been sliding as the key tourism industry dried up — though it starting to inch back up. Crime has increased. Labor strikes have proliferated.

And the political turmoil is far from over. The generals who took over from Mubarak have promised to hand authority to the election winner by the end of June. But many fear it will try to maintain a considerable amount of political say. The fundamentals of Mubarak’s police state remain in place, including the powerful security forces.

“We will have an elected president but the military is still here and the old regime is not dismantled,” said Ahmed Maher, a prominent activist from the group April 6, a key architect of last year’s 18-day uprising against Mubarak.

“The pressure will continue,” he said. “People have finally woken up. Whoever the next president is, we won’t leave him alone.”

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Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael and Matt Ford in Cairo and Aya Batrawy in Alexandria, Egypt, contributed to this report.

“It will take years before the military and civilians learn how to work together,” said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the Century Foundation in New York. “The generals don’t want to rule, but they have a dim view of civilians. And there are things they are unlikely to budge on — things they want to have a say in, like national security.”

All of Egypt’s four presidents since the overthrow of the monarchy in a 1952 coup have come from the military. The nation’s most powerful institution, the military has over the years built a seemingly unshakable image as a bastion of patriotism and the defender of the nation.

Retired generals have consistently been given top government jobs as Cabinet ministers, ambassadors, provincial governors, chairmen of key state-owned firms or key posts in the private sector. Combined with the powers of the president, a loyal police force and a coterie of very wealthy businessmen, they have held a stranglehold on Egypt.

High on the list of their worries is whether the armed forces’ budget will be subjected to public debate in the legislature, currently dominated by Islamists, most of whom are at sharp odds with the military.

There is also the question of whether the military’s vast economic interests — giant construction companies, farms, water-bottling facilities and a nationwide chain of gas stations — would come under civilian oversight or be forced to compete for lucrative government contracts like everyone else.

Already, a member of the ruling military council has sternly warned that anyone who tries to touch the military’s economic interests would be harshly dealt with.

One more source of concern is whether the next president would have the authority to pension off top brass after they reach the retirement age of 60. Many members of the ruling military council are well into their 60s or 70s.

None of these problems publicly surfaced under Mubarak, a career air force officer who allowed the military to freely pursue economic interests and accepted counsel from his defense minister on army promotions and retirement in return for the generals’ support throughout his 29-year rule.

Confining the military’s role to the defense of the nation has been a main demand by the pro-democracy groups who engineered the anti-Mubarak uprising and later called for the military to step down. Some want the generals to be put on trial to answer for alleged crimes during their rule, including the killing of peaceful protesters, torturing detainees and putting civilians on trial before military tribunals, including icon figures from the protest movement.

“Free and fair elections and the installation of a civilian president would be a step in the right direction,” said Samer S. Shehata, an Egypt expert from Georgetown University. “It will be the first step in the retreat, or hopefully the removal, of the military from executive power.”

Mubarak, the generals’ mentor, is on trial for his life on charges of complicity in the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the uprising, as well as corruption. The 84-year-old former president is to be sentenced on June 2.

Perhaps with Mubarak’s ordeal in mind, the military recently won protection for all personnel, whether retired or in active service, from being put on trial in civilian courts.

Publicly, the generals say they have no wish to remain in politics and would step down immediately if they could. Any talk of wanting to hold on to power is baseless, they say.

They have not shied away from singing their own praises, but their infrequent public appearances have meant they had to rely on a powerful state media, as well as influential journalists and several loyal private television stations to promote them as the nation’s faithful sons.

“The military and bureaucracy are the pillars of the state of Egypt,” commentator Gamal Abolhassan wrote in Sunday’s online edition of the independent al-Shorouk daily. “Without them, Egypt would have certainly slid into complete chaos.”

But it was under the military’s watch, say critics, that Egypt has seen a surge in crime, the loss of half the country’s foreign reserves as the economy faltered and the kind of disasters thought unimaginable just a little more than a year ago— including the deaths in February of more than 70 soccer fans in a riot as police stood by and watched.

The 13 candidates contesting the Wednesday-Thursday election include Islamists, liberals and two with military backgrounds, among them a retired air force commander who was Mubarak’s last prime minister.

No outright winner is expected to emerge from the two-day vote, so a runoff is scheduled for June 16-17 between the two top finishers.

The election is the last stop in a turbulent transitional period before the generals hand back power by July 1 as they promised soon after Mubarak’s ouster in last year’s 18-day popular uprising.

Media leaks over the past week of an impending “constitutional declaration” sponsored by the military to give it vast powers and defining those of the next president have sparked fears the generals are trying to create “a state within the state.”

The leaks prompted party leaders to enter emergency negotiations to try to come up with a constitutional declaration of their own. Meanwhile, the military has remained publicly silent on the issue.

Despite the controversy, the race’s front-runners have apparently decided not to heighten tension with the military, at least for now.

Rights lawyer Khaled Ali was the only candidate to address the issue at a news conference called Monday to voice fears over any such constitutional declaration which, if issued, would serve as an interim charter pending the drafting of a permanent constitution.

The military, meanwhile, sought on Monday to head off any post-election unrest, reassuring Egyptians that it has no favorite in the race and that voters will decide the next president.

“It is important that we all accept the election results, which will reflect the free choice of the Egyptian people, bearing in mind that Egypt’s democratic process is taking its first step and we all must contribute to its success,” the ruling military council said in a statement.

There has been widespread speculation that the military favors Ahmed Shafiq, the former air force commander who served as Mubarak’s civil aviation minister for 10 years before he named him prime minister in his final days in power.

A front-runner whose support has significantly risen in opinion polls in recent days, Shafiq’s name is tainted by his links to Mubarak. Islamists have threatened massive protests if he is elected and contend that he could only win if the vote was rigged.

Then again, most of the 50 million eligible voters will probably be looking for more modest returns — chiefly some peace and quiet after more than a year of turmoil, bloody protests, a falling economy and rising crime.

Whoever wins, “I want him to see to the security and safety problem first,” said Abdel-Rahman Shaker, a 55-year-old private security guard in Cairo. “If there is security, then we will have a better economy and production. I am looking out for my kids. I am working now, but we want a better life for our kids.”

However, the new chapter to be opened by this election is likely to be just as tumultuous, facing contentious issues that no one has dealt with since Mubarak’s fall: the economy, the role of Islam, the future of democracy, the relationship with the U.S., Egypt’s longtime backer, and the fate of the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt mirrors the chaotic trajectories that the Arab Spring revolts have taken after an initial burst of optimism that long repressed populations across the region could replace dictators with democracy.

The transition in Tunisia, the first nation to rise up in late 2010, has been the smoothest, with elections and a start to writing a new constitution. Post-Gadhafi Libya is torn among militias. Yemen’s leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, stepped down earlier this year but remains a shadow power. Syria has turned into a bloodbath. Bahrain, a vital U.S. ally and home to the U.S. Navy in the region, still suffers spasms of sectarian violence.

In Egypt itself, the 15 months since Mubarak’s ouster have been defined by deadly street clashes over demands by protesters whose demands range from minority Christian rights through the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to the departure from power of the generals who have run the country since Mubarak stepped down.

Well over 100 people have been killed in these clashes, including at least nine this month when protesters were attacked by armed men suspected to be supporters of the military.

At the same time, Egyptians are reveling in a new world of combative, televised politics, flesh-pressing politicians, presidential debates, rallies and hecklers.

“God and the people will guarantee that the next president will stay the course. If he does something wrong, we will kick him out,” said Al-Sayed Hassan Eid, a 65-year-old worker at a Cairo orphanage. “People are now aware. Before we couldn’t speak or open our mouth. There was state security who threatened to arrest us if we speak.”

“The era of fear is now over,” he said.

None of the 13 candidates is likely to top 50 percent in voting Wednesday and Thursday, so a runoff vote is set for June 16-17. A president will be announced June 21, and the generals promise to yield power by July 1.

On the secular side, front-runners are Amr Moussa, Mubarak’s foreign minister for 10 years, and Ahmed Shafiq, a former Air Force commander and civil aviation minister whom Mubarak made prime minister during his last days in power.

On the Islamist side are Mohammed Morsi for the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s strongest political movement, which was banned under Mubarak, and Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a moderate Islamist who broke with the Brotherhood and has emerged as a crossover candidate, with appeal among liberals and their polar opposites, the ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis.

That lineup is already an explosive mix. The secular leaders of the revolution fear either Moussa or Shafiq would perpetuate elements of the old, corrupt police state they served. Some Islamists threaten a second uprising.

“Voting for these people means joining them in sin,” a Brotherhood cleric, Munir Gomaa, said in a religious edict. “It is not permitted by Islamic law … to bring back these faces that the revolution sought to remove.”

The latest polls show Moussa and Shafiq in the lead, followed by Abolfotoh and then Morsi, with up to half the voters undecided. But polling, highly restricted under Mubarak, is new to Egypt and its reliability is unknown.

Many doubt Morsi could be lagging so far behind, given the Brotherhood’s proven electoral strength; in the post-Mubarak parliamentary election, the first in which the Muslim Brotherhood was allowed to run openly, it captured nearly half the seats.

Any result brings its own tensions. A Morsi victory would mean the Brotherhood, holding the presidency and dominating Parliament, could set about Islamizing Egypt’s government. But it might act with its customary pragmatism to avoid angering liberals and, more important, the military and security forces.

A Shafiq or Moussa victory would likely spell confrontation between the president and the legislature. The Brotherhood insists that as the biggest faction, it gets to name a prime minister and form a government. But the interim constitution, unless it is rewritten, gives that right solidly to the president.

For most of his rule, Mubarak — like his predecessors — ran unopposed in yes-or-no referendums. Rampant fraud guaranteed ruling party victories in parliamentary elections. Even when, in 2005, Mubarak let challengers oppose him in elections, he ended up not only trouncing his liberal rival but jailing him.

Now he is 84, ailing and on trial on charges of complicity in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 18-day uprising. But the downside of his departure is that Egyptian governance has been on hold for 15 months, with a series of military-appointed interim governments doing little to tackle the country’s problems.

Burst sewers go unrepaired, and unenforced laws allow illegal building to gobble up precious farmland. Crime has spiraled because police forces have largely left the streets, bruised and resentful after being beaten by protesters during the anti-Mubarak uprising.

Writing a new constitution has not begun, and the panel due to draft it has not even been formed. The new system’s shape has hardly been discussed — which powers will go to parliament, which to the president, how civil rights will be enshrined.

Almost nothing has been done on the major goal of the revolution: dismantling the Mubarak system that strangled political life. The security forces and domestic spy agencies that were the bedrock of the police state have not been reformed. Government ministries and agencies that for three decades operated largely through patronage and corruption remain unreformed. The military, through retired generals, pervades top state positions.

“These challenges will definitely not be resolved by the election or anytime soon thereafter,” said Egypt expert Denis Sullivan of Northeastern University, Illinois. “The election is a crucial step through the fire of Egypt’s ongoing, and still lengthy, transition toward a more participatory political system.”

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Associated Press correspondent Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report.