Egypt votes in historic referendum

Egyptians turned out to vote on Tuesday in a referendum on a new constitution.

Workers clear rubble from a blast outside a courthouse in Cairo that took place hours before voting on a new constitution opened on Tuesday morning. Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

CAIRO // Egyptians turned out in numbers amid tight security on Tuesday to vote in a referendum on a new constitution.

The two-day ballot is seen as a key step towards Egypt’s return to full democracy under a military-backed political road map, with elections for a president and a parliament to follow later this year.

The country has been sharply divided between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the military, security forces and their supporters following the army’s removal of the Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July last year.

Some 160,000 soldiers and more than 200,000 policemen fanned out across the nation to protect polling stations and voters against possible attacks by militants loyal to Mr Morsi. Cars were prevented from parking or driving by polling stations and women were searched by female police officers. Military helicopters hovered over Cairo and other major cities.

Long lines of voters began to form nearly two hours before polling stations opened in some Cairo districts. Women and the elderly were heavily represented. The mood was generally upbeat, hostile toward the Brotherhood and hopeful that the charter would bring better days.

An explosion struck a Cairo courthouse shortly before polls opened, in the densely populated neighbourhood of Imbaba, a Brotherhood stronghold, but there were no casualties

Three people were killed in the southern city of Sohag when gunfire broke out between police and gunmen on rooftops as clashes broke out between pro-Morsi protesters and security forces, officials said.

A Morsi supporter was shot dead as he and about 100 others tried to storm a polling station in the province of Bani Suef south of Cairo. It was not clear who was behind the shooting.

In Cairo’s working class district of Nahya, pro-Morsi protesters shot at and threw rocks at a polling station before closing all entrances with chains, scaring away voters and locking election officials inside, a judge in charge of the station said.

He said security forces later fired tear gas to disperse the protesters and allow voting to resume.

The new charter, drafted by a liberal-dominated committee appointed by the military-backed government, would ban political parties based on religion, give women equal rights and protect the status of minority Christians. It also gives the military special status by allowing it to select its own candidate for the job of defence minister for the next eight years and empowering it to bring civilians before military tribunals.

The charter is a heavily amended version of a constitution written by Mr Morsi’s Islamist allies and ratified in December 2012 with about 64 per cent of the vote but with a turnout of just over 30 per cent.

The current interim government is looking for a bigger “yes” majority and larger turnout to win undisputed legitimacy and perhaps a popular mandate for the army chief, General Abdel Fattah El Sisi, to run for president this year. Gen El Sisi has yet to say outright whether he plans to seek the nation’s highest office, but his candidacy appears increasingly likely.

The government and the overwhelmingly pro-military media have portrayed the balloting as the key to the nation’s security and stability. Hundreds of thousands of flyers, posters, banners and billboards urged Egyptians to vote “yes”, while people have been arrested for posters and campaigns calling for a “no” vote.

The referendum is the first electoral test for the popularly backed coup that ousted Mr Morsi and his Brotherhood. A comfortable “yes” vote and a respectable turnout would bestow legitimacy on the cascade of events that followed the coup while undermining the Islamists’ argument that Mr Morsi remains the nation’s elected president.

The Brotherhood, now branded as a terrorist group, called for a boycott of the vote. Mr Morsi himself is facing three separate trials on charges that carry the death penalty.

The unprecedented security for the vote follows months of violence that authorities have blamed on Islamic militants. In the six months since Mr Morsi’s removal, there has been an assassination attempt on the interior minister and deadly attacks on key security officers, soldiers, policemen and provincial security and military intelligence headquarters.

“You must come out and vote to prove to those behind the dark terrorism that you are not afraid,” the interim president, Adly Mansour, said after casting his vote.

Mr Morsi’s supporters have labelled the draft charter a “constitution of blood” and promised massive demonstrations, but protests in several parts of the country drew only several hundred supporters.

* Associated Press