Egyptians voted yesterday in the final round of a referendum on a new constitution championed by President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist allies, but with little prospect of the result quelling fierce protests.
The text was drafted by a panel dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-orthodox Salafists
On the eve of polling, clashes in Egypt’s second city Alexandria injured 62 people as stone-throwing mobs torched vehicles, underlining the turmoil gripping the Arab world’s most populous nation.
On December 5, eight people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes between rival demonstrators outside the Presidential palace in Cairo.
Some 250,000 police and soldiers were deployed to provide security during the referendum. The army has also positioned tanks around the Presidential palace since early this month.
The proposed charter was expected to be adopted after already garnering 57 per cent support in the first round of the referendum a week ago.
Morsi’s Vice-President, Mahmud Mekki, whose position is not mentioned by the new charter, announced his resignation the previous Saturday.
“Political work does not suit my professional character,” he said in a statement, referring to his past as a respected judge.
A slim margin and a low first-round turnout in the referendum is expected to embolden the opposition, which looks likely to continue its campaign against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers.
Electoral officials announced they were extending voting by four hours, to 11 pm, as they did in the first round.
At one polling station in Giza, southwest Cairo, 50-year-old housewife Zarifa Abdul Aziz said: “I will vote ‘no’ a thousand times... I am not comfortable with the Brotherhood and all that it is doing.”
Rana Jaber, 24, said she was voting against a draft constitution she believed would “undermine the rights of workers and children”.
But 19-year-old law student Ahmed Mohammed said he voted ‘yes’ because “it contains the best of the 1971 constitution,” the document the new charter will replace.
Mohamed Mamza, a 49-year-old driver, said: “I am voting ‘yes’ because Egypt needs a constitution to be stable.”
The text was drafted by a panel dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-orthodox Salafist groups. Christians and liberals boycotted the process in protest at changes they saw as weakening human rights, especially those of women.