The Society of Muslim Brothers states that they have won in the first round of referendum on the new constitution of Egypt. The opposition is sure that the situation is quite opposite, reportedly by the BBC. According to the Islamists’ data, the draft of the new constitution proposed by them and supported by the Egypt President Mohammed Mursi has been approved by 56.5 percent of the voters. Their opponents from the liberal opposition stated immediately after the closing of the polling stations that according to their exit polls the majority of the voters answered “no” to the question of the referendum.
Meanwhile, Reuters quotes an unnamed oppositionist as saying that an “astonishingly high” number of people have voted for the new constitution in Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city. The first round of the referendum has been held in big Egyptian cities, Cairo, Alexandria, and eight provinces. The duration of the voting has been prolonged because of the high turnout. Muslim Brothers have been members of practically all election commissions in 10 regions, where the first round was held. The citizens of other regions are voting in a week, on December 22, and only then the official results of the referendum will be announced. On the whole, there are 51 million registered voters in Egypt.
Earlier the supporters and opponents of President Mursi held their rallies, which in some regions of the country turned into bloody clashes, where baseball bats were used for injuring.
“At some point of time history will pay the regime back for making Egypt people go to the referendum under these terrible circumstances. There is blood on the streets, and they have been unable to find a sufficient number of judges to see to the situation,” Ahmed Said, the chairman of the Free Egyptians Party, said on Friday.
In their turn, Mursi’s supporters stated that the oppositionists are “openly lying” and purposefully sowing discord. President Mursi and the ruling party Muslim Brothers are actively calling the people to support the draft of the new basic law of the country. However, the opposition mentioned that representatives of exclusively Islamist parties have taken part in the drafting of the new constitution. Subsequently the law does not meet the expectations of all the strata of Egyptian population.
The opponents of Mursi consider that the new constitution will grant excessive powers to religious authorities in the sphere of legislation. The representatives of human rights organizations fear that if the results of the voting in the first round are announced prematurely, it will have an effect on the decisions of the people who are going to vote in a week.
This is the very reason why the opposition National Rescue Front insisted on holding the voting in the entire country on one day only. However, the referendum is being held in two rounds because too few judges agreed to observe the voting.
The opponents of the new draft of the constitution are sure that its adoption is the first step to sharia in the country. They say the result of the current referendum will in many ways determine what path Egypt will take in the future.
Six NGOs which have monitored the first round of the constitution referendum in Egypt demanded to hold a new voting. The NGOs stated at a press conference that the organization of the referendum resembled the time of Mubarak and accused the authorities of fraud.
The NGOs demanded to announce the results of the first round invalid because of numerous violations. The NGOs named among the complaints, which have been sent during the voting and after it, the shortage of judges to observe the course of the referendum and the presence of the members of the ruling party Freedom and Justice at the polling stations.
According to the NGOs, some Christians and women were forbidden to vote. The monitoring organizations stated that they had received 4,000 complaints and called the police 1,500 times.
They called on the supreme election commission to do its best to avoid violations during the second round of the referendum, which is supposed to take place next Saturday.
A short review of Egypt Constitution:
- sharia remains the main source of legislation;
- Christianity and Judaism are the main source of law for Christians and Jews;
- religious rights and freedoms are guaranteed only for Muslims, Christians, and Jews;
- a president may serve only two four-year-long terms in office.
