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Abidjan, Ivory Coast (CNN) — Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo arrived Wednesday at the International Criminal Court in The Hague to stand trial for his role in his country’s post-election violence that killed thousands.

“It is exactly a year since the presidential election that led to one of the worst episodes of violence Cote d’Ivoire has ever known,” said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s chief prosecutor, using the French name for the country. “In December last year, we put Mr. Gbagbo and the others on notice. Today, we are following up.”

The former president’s initial appearance is scheduled for Monday, the ICC announced.

Gbagbo, 66, was flown out of the northern Ivoirian city of Khorogo, where he had been under house arrest, on an Ivoirian government airplane Tuesday evening, said his adviser, Toussaint Alain.

Alain called it an illegal transfer. “The international court has taken an illegal action. This is a political decision rather than a decision of justice,” Alain said.

Rebuilding Ivory Coast’s cocoa trade

Ivory Coast reforming cocoa

The action comes a week before parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Ivory Coast. Three political parties in an umbrella coalition (CNRD) with Gbagbo’s Front Populaire Ivoirien issued a statement saying they would boycott the elections as a result of Gbagbo’s transfer.

Last month, Moreno-Ocampo arrived in Ivory Coast to meet with government and opposition leaders and began an inquiry into the West African nation’s post-election violence.

In his application to the judges for authorization to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, Moreno-Ocampo cited sources who said at least 3,000 people were killed, 72 people disappeared and 520 others were subject to arbitrary arrest and detentions since the November 28, 2010, election that resulted in the violence.

Gbagbo, the incumbent, refused to cede power even though challenger Alassane Ouattara was internationally recognized as the winner. Months of bloodshed ensued. The political stalemate was settled by Gbagbo’s capture in April by forces loyal to his rival, and he has been detained in the north of Ivory Coast. Gbagbo refused to accept the results of U.N.-certified elections.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying Gbagbo is “the first former head of state taken into custody by the ICC.”

President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi have also been subject to ICC arrest warrants, but al-Bashir has not come into ICC custody, nor did Gadhafi, who was killed in October during Libya’s revolution, Human Rights Watch said.

“The ICC is playing its part to show that even those at the highest levels of power cannot escape justice when implicated in grave crimes,” Elise Keppler, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

The court charged Gbagbo with four counts of crimes against humanity, “namely murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and other inhuman acts.”

“This is a big day for the victims of (Ivory Coast’s) horrific post-election violence,” Keppler said. “That Laurent Gbagbo now has to answer to the court sends a strong message to Ivoirian political and military leaders that no one should be above the law.”

CNN’s Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

Police move on Occupy L.A. protesters

Peaceful eviction of Occupy protesters

Cops shoot man near Occupy gathering

Rareview: Race matters at Occupy Atlanta

In Philadelphia, 52 people were arrested, said police spokeswoman Christine O’Brien.

The evictions at Dilworth Plaza came about 1 a.m., Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said in a statement.

Scuffles broke out after police ordered some protesters to clear the street, CNN affiliate WPVI said.

O’Brien said police remained at the scene Wednesday, and the plaza was being cleaned. WPVI reported several streets were closed until further notice.

Four people were injured, Nutter said in the written statement. One police officer sustained a shoulder injury, another cut his hand while making arrests, and a third cut his leg while taking down a tent. A protester was injured when a police horse stepped on her toe, O’Brien said, and was taken to a hospital.

On Monday, Nutter gave protesters camped at Dilworth Plaza a 48-hour notice to vacate the site, citing a pending construction project.

With the Los Angeles and Philadelphia evictions, Occupy encampments remained in a handful of cities including San Francisco; Asheville, North Carolina; Oklahoma City; and Washington, according to media reports and websites set up by the movement in some cities.

In Los Angeles, officers in riot gear and armed with batons closed off streets around City Hall, using bullhorns to warn scores of agitated Occupy LA protesters to disperse.

“This has been declared to be an unlawful assembly. You have seven minutes to gather your belongings and decide to leave,” one officer said.

During the raid, more than a dozen protesters sat in a tight circle in the middle of the park with their arms linked. Some cried. Some wore masks.

A white police truck drove through the center of the park, announcing orders to disperse in English and Spanish.

Some campers left willingly. One carried a skateboard under one arm and what looked like a rolled-up sleeping bag in the other.

Officers were met with profanity but no violence.

“This is what a police state looks like!” some of the protesters chanted.

Villaraigosa said the police action was “a measured approach to enforcing the park closure.”

On Sunday, he gave the group a 12:01 a.m. Monday deadline to take down their camp, saying “an encampment on City Hall grounds is simply not sustainable indefinitely.”

But the protesters held their ground. Four people were arrested, but police pulled back.

The demonstrators sought a federal court injunction to block their removal, claiming that enforcement of the city’s “anti-camping” provision is left up to the whim of the police.

The City Council has “expressly affirmed” that the demonstrators are within their First Amendment rights, their complaint said, and Villaraigosa, in ordering them to leave, overstepped his authority.

The case remained pending Wednesday.

In announcing the Wednesday police raid, the mayor said the park will be closed, and then reopened to “all Angelenos to exercise their First Amendment rights.”

The protesters are welcome back, but they cannot camp out — the same arrangement as at New York’s Zuccotti Park.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York in September has spread across major cities worldwide as a call to action against the unequal distribution of wealth.

In recent weeks, cities have begun clearing encampments, citing economic, health and public safety concerns.

While only a handful of protesters remained at Zuccotti Park, hundreds meet on a regular basis in the atrium of a building on Wall Street.

One problem faced by the Occupy movement is that its tactics “are really costly to themselves,” meaning its members, said Michael Heaney, a University of Michigan professor who studies social movements. “Basically what they’ve done is, they’ve built a movement around a tactic that requires a high level of commitment on the part of its members” in terms of arrests and legal action or perhaps having their property confiscated.

That tactic — camping in public spaces — can succeed for a while, he said, “but the police will inevitably crack down.”

In order to survive, he said, the Occupy movement needs to adopt some other tactics in order to change the system through internal pressure, not just external pressure, he said. Those might include lobbying, for instance.

The civil rights movement, he said, used tactics such as marches and sit-ins, but also formulated a legal strategy and lobbied for the Civil Rights Act.

But in the Occupy movement, it’s precisely the current tactic that has inspired people, he said, making it tough for the movement to reorient itself. In addition, members have ideological reasons to reject alternative tactics, he said.

“The people that are at the heart of the Occupy movement are more committed to their way of organizing than they are to achieving the policy goals they say they support,” Heaney said. “… They care more about doing social action in the way they want to do it,” meaning a non-hierarchical, “leaderless” approach.

In addition, he noted, policy change in the United States can take decades — allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military, for example. “In order to achieve policy change, you need institutions and interests committed over a period of several decades to bringing about those changes.”

Still, the Occupy movement has been “the most successful anarchist movement in history,” he said, and is able to organize people effectively. But, he said, it’s hard to see a clear path to its next stage.

CNN Radio’s Steve Kastenbaum and CNN’s Paul Vercammen and Sandra Endo contributed to this report.

(CNN) — The Nigerian senate has passed a bill banning same-sex marriages, defying a threat from Britain to withhold aid from nations violating gay rights.

The bill by Africa’s most populous nation calls for a 14-year sentence for anyone convicted of homosexuality. Anyone who aids or “abets” same-sex unions faces 10 years in prison, a provision that could target rights groups.

It goes to the nation’s House of Representatives for a vote before President Goodluck Jonathan can sign it into law.

“It would place a wide range of people at risk of criminal sanctions, including human rights defenders and anyone else — including friends, families and colleagues — who stands up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people in Nigeria,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

The bill passed Tuesday comes nearly a month after British prime minister, David Cameron, threatened to withhold aid from nations violating gays rights, sparking outrage in Africa where leaders interpreted it as “colonial” display of power.

Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries based on remnants of sodomy laws introduced during the British colonial era and perpetuated by cultural beliefs.

Punishments across the continent range from fines to years in prison.

“This is something we raise continually and … we’re also saying that British aid should have more strings attached in terms of ‘do you persecute people for their faith or their Christianity or do you persecute people for their sexuality?” Cameron said in a statement.

“We don’t think that’s acceptable. So look, this is an issue where we want movement, we’re pushing for movement, we’re prepared to put some money behind what we believe.”

Soon after his remarks earlier this month, a flurry of African governments released defiant statements accusing him of undermining their sovereignty and culture.

Last week, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, known for his anti-gay rhetoric, called the prime minister “satanic” for demanding gay rights.

“Do not get tempted into that (homosexuality) madness. You are young people. If you go that direction, we will punish you severely,” state media quoted him as saying. “It is condemned by nature. It is condemned by insects and that is why I have said they are worse than pigs and dogs.”

Mugabe’s comments were the latest in a series of strident remarks by African leaders.

Ugandan government spokesman Fred Opolot described Cameron’s remarks as “patronizing, colonial rhetoric,” saying the nation is busy expanding its oil sector to reduce its reliance on aid.

“We are working hard to limit our reliance on foreign governments for this reason,” he said. “Statements like the one Cameron is making are false. Our cultural norms and values don’t accept homosexuality, but there is no policy against gay people.”

In 2009, a Ugandan lawmaker introduced a proposal calling for execution of people convicted of homosexuality. The proposal sparked an international outcry and threats from some European countries to cut aid to the nation, which relies on millions of dollars from foreign nations.

Opolot said the proposal was the opinion of a sole lawmaker and did not reflect the government view. The legislation was eventually shelved, but regularly pops up in parliament and remains a simmering issue.

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, a major western ally, applauded the benefits of foreign aid, but said the nation will not accept money that will undermine its interest.

“I will never initiate or support any attempt to legalize homosexuality in Ghana,” he told journalists this month, according to state media. “As government we will abide by the principles as contained in our Constitution, which is supreme.”

Tanzanian officials decried the remarks, saying they “can lead to broken relations” between the two nations.

Cameron’s statements also sparked a fiery debate among Africans on social media, where opinions were divided.

“At first, I was upset. I thought, how dare he treats us like this?’ said Nigel Mugamu, 33, who lives in Harare, Zimbabwe.

“Then I thought about it,” the businessman said. “The U.K. economy is struggling. They spend a lot of money on aid. Given what’s happening economically. Maybe it’s a nice way of saying — we can’t afford it?”

Mugamu said the threat should be an opportunity to open up a dialogue on an issue considered a taboo in African culture.

“Now is the time to talk about it … to get our house in order. Lets use this opportunity to say, ‘OK, if we didn’t have aid, how would we survive?” he said. “Let’s talk about gay rights issues. Let’s turn this into a national — African discussion.”

Others said while denying aid would be extreme, the continent has a long way to go when it comes to human rights.

“It would be ridiculous if that mentality — pride from leaders in both sides — got in the way of millions benefiting from aid,” said Aida Mbowa, a Stanford University doctorate student who lives in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

However, she said, the threat thrusts the issue to the forefront.

“We need minority rights in the continent. There’s a part of me that knows this threat will not have much of impact. But in a way, it’s an achievement, however small. Despite the differences in opinion … it has brought the conversation out in the open.”

The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya said while Cameron’s remarks are a positive gesture, they risk turning homosexuals into targets. It urged the prime minister to instead consider directing some aid to community programs aimed at fostering dialogue and tolerance.

“Support national and regional human rights mechanisms to ensure the inclusiveness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues in their protective and promotional mandates,” the group said.

As the prejudices rage on, gays and lesbians in the continent lead fidgety lives, including forming underground movements that change locations regularly for safety issues.

Sexual violence against lesbians has become so common in South Africa, the nation has coined a new term “corrective rape” to describe it. South Africa — one of the more progressive nations in the continent on the issue — was the first African country to impose a constitutional ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Cameron said he does not expect a sudden change in mindsets, and admits it will take time.

Journalist Columbus S. Mavhunga contributed to this report from Harare, Zimbabwe

London (CNN) — British newspapers print “complete nonsense” in support of agendas set by their owners, former Tony Blair spokesman Alastair Campbell said Wednesday.

“The impact of the story is deemed to be far more important than the accuracy,” he said.

Campbell blamed “an obsession with celebrity, a culture of negativity, and amorality among some of the industry’s leaders” for driving a “downmarket trend” in the industry.

“Speed now comes ahead of accuracy, impact comes ahead of fairness, and in parts of the press anything goes to get the story first,” the former journalist turned spin doctor said.

And self-regulation by the press has “failed,” because chairmen of the Press Complaints Commission have been “political fixers operating in the interests of the press, not the public.”

He was testifying at the Leveson Inquiry, a wide-ranging British government-backed inquiry into press ethics and practices in the country.

Ex-Blair aide testifies on phone hacking

Sienna Miller: Press chase ‘terrifying’

Madeleine McCann’s mom felt ‘violated’

Hugh Grant testifies on phone hacking

Shortly before he was due to begin testifying, police arrested a 31-year-old woman in connection with their own investigation into phone hacking, they announced.

The woman, who was not named, is the 15th person arrested in connection with the phone-hacking probe, which police are running separately from the Leveson Inquiry. They are also looking into computer hacking and bribery of police by journalists.

The inquiry was prompted by widespread public outrage at the revelation that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid News of the World had hacked into the voice mail of a murdered 13-year-old girl.

Murdoch’s son James, the chief executive of the News Corporation subsidiary that published the now-defunct tabloid, has repeatedly denied knowing about the scale of illegal eavesdropping at his papers.

But a former News of the World journalist testified Tuesday that the editors of the tabloid knew that their reporters were hacking phones in search of stories.

Paul McMullan named Andy Coulson, who went on to become an adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Rebekah Brooks, a Murdoch protege, as editors who were aware of the practice.

Coulson resigned as editor of the tabloid in 2007 when one of his reporters went to prison for hacking the voice mails of Prince William’s staff, and he later became Cameron’s communications director.

Coulson has always denied knowing about phone hacking, saying he quit the paper because he was ultimately responsible for the actions of his staff.

The Leveson Inquiry has been hearing from high-profile figures for more than a week.

McMullan said phone hacking was widespread at the tabloid and described being caught out himself while trying to hack David Beckham’s phone.

The soccer star shocked him by answering the phone before McMullan could dial the code to access his voice mail, forcing the journalist to hang up quickly, he said.

He argued that the public was complicit in the country’s tabloid culture, saying newspapers publish stories about stars because “there is a taste for it, there is a market for it.”

Celebrities also use the tabloid press to increase their exposure, he said, describing how model Katie Price, better known as Jordan, gave him the finger through a window.

He snapped a picture of her, thinking, “Thanks, love,” and sold it for 2,000 pounds ($3,100).

“She knew exactly what she was doing,” he said.

He also defended the tabloids’ methods as part of a free society, saying he would not want to live in a country where only the secret services were able to hack phones.

Police investigating phone hacking by journalists say that about 5,800 people, including celebrities, crime victims, politicians and members of the royal family, were targets of the practice by journalists in search of stories.

It involves illegally eavesdropping on voice mail by entering a PIN to access messages remotely.

(CNN) — Naming a product after the world’s most notorious terrorist may not seem like a surefire route to commercial success.

For bakers in the Malawian city of Blantyre, however, this marketing ploy is helping to reel in customers while ensuring that their produce has an unmistakeable identity.

“We make bin Laden buns,” said Mahomed Hanif Valimamade, co-owner of a patisserie within the city named the Portuguese Bakery.

The standard bread rolls — which are not exclusive to any one company and are produced by a variety of outlets in Blantyre — were initially given their unconventional moniker by customers who likened their appearance to similar bread made in the Middle East, says Valimamade.

The tag quickly caught on, and when businesses realized how their products were being identified, they began to label them as such, to great effect.

On a good day, Valimamade claims, small bakeries like his own can sell as many as 2,000 “bin Ladens,” adding that a large part of what makes them stand out is their attention-grabbing title.

He is quick to point out, however, that the name has nothing to do with an admiration for or expression of solidarity with the now-deceased al Qaeda figurehead.

“The majority of people like this name,” Valimamade explained. “It seems to me this is nothing to do with politics. Malawian people are very pro-Western.”

Since catching on around the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001, the unlikely success of brand bin Laden has not gone unnoticed by other enterprises in Blantyre. Many have even adopted similar naming conventions for their own products.

There are now baked goods and breads named after George W. Bush and Barack Obama, says Valimamade — although these do not sell as much as bin Laden due to the fact they are slightly smaller. There is also a mobile phone named after the Malawian president, Bingu wa Mutharika.

According to Valimamade, such creative naming policies are a source of fun and frivolity that emphasize Malawians’ “unique sense of humor.”

To other local business analysts, however, they represent a savvy adaptation to customer identification processes by businesses keen to give their products a competitive edge.

“The naming, though often spontaneous and accidental, is appealing” to local customers, said Collins Namakhwa, a lecturer in marketing and branding at Malawi Polytechnic University in Blantyre.

“In Malawi, people are so taken up by the popular frenzy that they may try a product just because it is popular,” he added.

Namakhwa explains that businesses that have renamed their products to take on names like “bin Laden” and “Obama” are able to tap into socially driven events or popular trends that resonate with consumers in their daily lives.

This, he says, makes the items more recognizable, easier to distinguish than their more conventionally titled competitors and, most important, more likely to sell.

But while enthusiastic about the creativity of Blantyre’s businessmen, Namakhwa is aware that outside observers may see it as tasteless — and bad business practice — to name products after figures such as Bush and bin Laden.

The intricacies and complexities of Malawi’s marketplace, however, as well as its isolation from the subjects of their naming policies, ensure that any negative connotations present in other environments are irrelevant, says Namakhwa.

“In Malawi, the strength of political opinion against a controversial figure is not as high as in the Western world,” he said.

He added that external factors such as a decline in Obama’s popularity in America would not necessarily lead Malawians to stop buying a bread named after him in their country.

Valimamade agrees, saying that even though some may react negatively to the product titles, the majority of local people will continue to demand or react positively to them.

As long as there is competition to create attractive products, he said, “this type of name will always exist, (and) as a business, we must follow the winds.”

London (CNN) — Britain has closed its embassy in Iran and evacuated all its staff from that country following the attack on the embassy compound in Tehran Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Wednesday.

Iran has also been ordered to close its embassy in London immediately, with its staff given 48 hours to leave, Hague said in a strongly worded statement to the UK Parliament.

Protesters stormed Britain’s embassy and a separate compound Tuesday in Iran’s capital, sparking outrage in the United Kingdom. The buildings should have been guarded by Iranian security officers.

Some demonstrators proceeded to vandalize and loot the homes of staff and the ambassador’s residence, destroy furniture, steal their property and set fire to the main embassy office building, Hague said.

“This is a breach of international responsibilities of which any nation should be ashamed,” Hague said.

While relations between Britain and Iran have been strained in recent times, he said, “We should be absolutely clear that no difficulty in relations can ever excuse in any way or under any circumstances the failure to protect diplomatic staff and diplomatic premises.

“Iran is a country where opposition leaders are under house arrest, more than 500 people have been executed so far this year and where genuine protest is ruthlessly stamped on.

“The idea that the Iranian authorities could not have protected our embassy or that this assault could have taken place without some degree of regime consent is fanciful.”

Obama: Iran embassy riots unacceptable

The majority of about 200 demonstrators who overran the city center embassy compound were members of a student Basij militia organization, he said, which is “controlled by elements of the Iranian regime.”

Hague thanked those European and Arab nations that offered assistance to British Embassy staff following the incident. British citizens still in Iran will be supported by other EU missions there, he said.

The United Nations Security Council, the United States, Germany, Poland, Russia and France have all expressed their concern over the incursion, which went against international law, he said.

Alistair Burt, British under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office, also accused Iran’s government of being involved in the embassy incident on Wednesday, calling it a deliberate provocation.

“The people who were involved are known to have connections with elements of the regime,” Burt told CNN.

He noted, “Iran is a divided, conflicted leadership … It is clear that not all parts of leadership were involved. But nothing like that happens in Tehran without leadership being involved in some way.” The attacks happened in “two separate places, simultaneously,” Burt said.

Protesters who raided the British Embassy and the other British compound were demanding that the British ambassador be sent home immediately.

The incident has worried some other nations with diplomatic staff in Tehran.

The Netherlands became the latest European nation to recall its ambassador to Iran for consultations late Wednesday, following the lead of France and Germany.

The French Foreign Ministry said it was recalling its Tehran envoy, “given this blatant and unacceptable violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the severity of the violence.”

The Iranian charge d’affaires in Paris has been called upon “to reiterate France’s condemnation and to remind the Iranian authorities of their obligations,” the ministry said in a statement.

Norway is closing its embassy there temporarily “because of a general assessment of the security situation in Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hilde Steinfeld said earlier Wednesday. A statement said the embassy would reopen Thursday.

Ireland’s Foreign Office urged Iran to reconsider its decision to expel the British ambassador to Tehran and said it should bring those responsible for the embassy incursion to justice.

If this does not happen, it said, “there are likely to be serious consequences for Iran’s relations with the EU and the wider international community.”

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will address the matter on Thursday, said Bernard Valero, spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry.

Tuesday’s demonstration in Tehran followed an Iranian Parliament vote Sunday to expel the British ambassador and reduce diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom in retaliation for its new sanctions against Iran, according to IRNA, the country’s official news agency.

The rally began quietly outside the embassy, but some participants stormed the building, breaking down the door. Among other things, they replaced the British flag with an Iranian one.

Speaker Ali Larijani was quoted on the Iranian Parliament’s official website as saying that while Iranians should act legally, the decision to expel the British envoy was a response to Britain’s own behavior.

“The gathering of the Iranian people in front of the British embassy was a reflection of the nation’s public opinion caused by British actions,” he said, according to the website.

Alaedin Boroujerdi, the lawmaker who introduced the expulsion bill, told the semi-official Fars News Agency on Wednesday that while Iran is glad to see the last of the British diplomats, “The consequences of closing down Iran’s embassy in the UK will be London’s responsibility.”

Britain cut all financial ties with Iran last week over concerns about its nuclear program, the first time it has cut an entire country’s banking sector off from British finance.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry expressed its regret for the student protest, saying on its website that it had “turned into an out of control demonstration.” The ministry said it would “take action through legal channels” against those who stormed the embassy building.

“A number of” protesters who broke into both places have been arrested, IRNA said, quoting the nation’s deputy commander of security forces.

Hague warned Tuesday of “serious consequences” for the raids.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the incursion as “outrageous and indefensible” and demanded that Iran immediately ensure the safety of all British Embassy personnel.

Iranian security forces are responsible for guarding the embassy under international law, he said.

“The failure of the Iranian government to defend British staff and property was a disgrace,” the prime minister said.

“The Iranian government must recognize that there will be serious consequences for failing to protect our staff,” Cameron said. “We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days.”

Last week’s sanctions ordered British credit and financial institutions to end their business relationships and transactions with all Iranian banks, their branches and subsidiaries.

The move came after an International Atomic Energy Agency report highlighted new concerns about “the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program,” the British Treasury statement said last week.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and has called the U.N. watchdog’s report “unbalanced” and “politically motivated.”

CNN’s Adam Levine, Elizabeth Joseph, Antonia Mortensen, Claudia Rebaza, Shirzad Bozorgmehr and Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report.

Cairo (CNN) — Tahrir Square was peaceful Wednesday as Egyptians awaited initial results of parliamentary elections, a break from the clashes that have gripped Cairo for much of the past two weeks.

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Al Noor Salafi Muslim Party claimed a lead in ballot counting, but no official results were expected until Thursday at the earliest.

Voting took place Monday and Tuesday, the first elections since President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February.

It is the first time some Egyptians — young and old — have ever cast ballots. Citizens are picking members of the lower house of parliament, which will be tasked with drafting a new constitution after three decades of Mubarak’s rule.

Some voters and human rights activists expressed hope that their votes will actually count, though some boycotted the elections saying they don’t trust the voting will be free and fair.

There were reports of some illegal campaigning taking place.

Voters optimistic in Egypt

Economy struggles amid Egyptian turmoil

Ali Al Dali, an official monitor for the Egyptian Association of Human Rights, said eight cases of vote-buying had been documented in Alexandria, and police had been notified. About 45% of eligible voters in the city had cast ballots, he said.

By nightfall Tuesday night, new clashes erupted in Tahrir Square. The unrest stretched into early Wednesday.

At least 88 people were hurt, 28 of them seriously enough to go to a hospital, a Health Ministry official, Dr. Adel Adawi, told the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram. The rest were treated at makeshift clinics in the square, Adawi said, but hospitals expected more people to be brought in.

The victims were hit by rocks, glass bottles, birdshot and Molotov cocktails, Dr. Hisham Shiha, another Health Ministry official, told CNN. At least a dozen gunshots rang out across the plaza, and ambulances darted in and out of the square as the fighting continued.

Tahrir Square was the epicenter of the protests that drove Mubarak from power and the demonstrations in recent days against the military council that succeeded him.

Witnesses said Tuesday’s melee began with fights between vendors and protesters who threw rocks and attacked their kiosks with sticks. The protesters complained some vendors were giving demonstrations a bad image by selling marijuana, said Mina Hagras, one of the demonstrators who has been camped in the square.

“This is not the spirit of the revolutionaries or the square,” Hagras said. “They warned them. They did not stop. So they took matters in their own hands and beat them up. Now, state TV is saying all the protesters in (the) square are thugs and drug users. This is not fair.”

But Mohamed Shafei, whose sandwich stand was destroyed in the brawl, said the protesters turned on the vendors indiscriminately and confiscating their goods.

“Yes, there were several vendors selling hashish and pills, but not all of us are the same,” Shafei said as he carried the remains of his kiosk. He added that the vendors were “retaliating.”

Elections for Egypt’s lower house of parliament are scheduled to take place in three stages, based on geography. The last of the three stages is set to take place in January.

Upper house elections will run between January and March.

Presidential elections will be held by June, according to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt’s acting ruling body. Military leaders have said they will hand over power to a new government when one is elected, but many Egyptians say they don’t trust the council and fear the military will cling to power.

Over the past two weeks, at least 42 people have been killed in clashes as protesters called for an immediate end to military rule. An additional 3,250 have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry.

CNN’s Ben Wedeman, James Partington, Ivan Watson, Leone Lakhani and Jim Clancy and journalists Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Ian Lee contributed to this report.