“The Carter Center has received accreditation as one of the organizations that will witness the election by Egypt’s Supreme Presidential Election Commission,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, according to AFP.

She said the 22 observers from 14 countries will “join in total an 80-person witness delegation covering 35 countries and they will be there for several days before the election and through the election,” Nuland told reporters.

The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter. In partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center works to advance human rights.The Carter Center has been a pioneer of election observation, monitoring more than 80 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989 and forging many of the techniques now common to the field.

Polls indicate that Amr Mussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief, and Islamist candidate Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh are the leading contenders in the May 23-24 elections, according to Egypt Independent News. 

Eleven other candidates are competing in the presidential election which should mark the end of a turbulent military-led transitional period since president Hosni Mubarak’s was ousted in February 2011.

Results of the voting for expatriates are expected to be announced on Friday, the Supreme Presidential Election Commission (SPEC) 
announced, with a run-off voting set to take place between June 3 and 9, if necessary. Voting inside Egypt will take place on May 23-24.

According to Egyptian media, 57,000 Egyptians have already voted. Turnout has been particularly high in Saudi Arabia, home of nearly half of the 587,000 registered voters abroad.