A policeman stands in front of a damaged building of a court complex after an explosion in Imbaba, north of Cairo, yesterday, was heard just before voting was due to begin.

Egyptians voted yesterday for the first time since the military deposed president Mohamed Morsi on a draft constitution that may set the stage for a presidential bid by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

At least five people were killed in confrontations between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police, official sources said, highlighting the tensions in the country. A small bomb went off in Cairo, injuring no one.

The Brotherhood, still backing Morsi who is now in jail, has called for a boycott and protests over the draft, which deletes Islamic language written into the basic law approved a year ago when he was still in office. It also strengthens state bodies that defied him: the army, the police and the judiciary.

They see Sisi, 59, as someone who can stabilise and protect Egypt

While a state crackdown on dissent has erased many freedoms won by the 2011 uprising against president Hosni Mubarak, anticipation of more stable government sent the stock market yesterday to its highest level since his downfall. The main index exceeded its January 2011 peak.

The referendum is a milestone in the political transition plan the army-backed government has billed as a path back to democracy even as it presses a fierce crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organised party until last year.

A presidential election could follow as early as April.

Echoing a view widely held in Egypt, a senior European diplomat said Sisi would probably announce his candidacy in the next few days – a prospect that will delight supporters but could stir more conflict with his Islamist opponents.

With little or no sign of a campaign against the draft – one moderately Islamist party says its activists were arrested while campaigning for a no-vote – it is expected to pass easily, backed by many Egyptians who staged mass protests on June 30 against Morsi and the Brotherhood before his removal.

“We are here for two reasons: to eradicate the Brotherhood and take our rights in the constitution,” said Gamal Zeinhom, a 54-year old voter standing in line at a Cairo polling station.

Others cited a desire to bring stability to Egypt after three years of turmoil.

Sisi ousted Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected head of state, last July. His Islamist opponents say he is the mastermind of a coup that kindled the worst internal strife in Egypt’s modern history and revived an oppressive police state.

But after a failed experiment with democracy, many are weary of the upheaval that has gripped this nation of 85 million and shattered its economy. They see Sisi, 59, as someone who can stabilise and protect Egypt from what local media depict as foreign and domestic conspiracies to divide the nation.

Sisi inspected a polling station after voting began, dressed in desert-coloured fatigues and wearing his trademark dark sunglasses. The two-day vote ends today.