By Tamim Elyan
CAIRO: Over 14 million out of 18 voted in favor of the constitutional amendments on Saturday, the supreme judicial committee supervising the referendum said on Sunday.
Out of about 45 million Egyptians eligible to vote, 18,366,764, or 41.19 percent, hit the poll stations on Saturday.
According to the committee, 14,192,577 voted yes (77.2 percent), while 4,174,187 voted no (22.8). Over 170,190 ballots were invalidated.
The Muslim Brotherhood and remnants of former president Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party called for a ‘yes’ vote, and analysts said they would benefit the most from an early parliamentary election. Reformers urged a ‘no’ vote saying they wanted the constitution re-written.
Egyptians flocked to polling stations Saturday to cast their votes on proposed constitutional amendments with reports indicating that the polling process went smoothly under complete judicial supervision.
Committee head, First Deputy to the State Council President Mohamed Attia, hailed the “unprecedented” turnout. “It’s the first referendum in Egypt’s history … after people regained Egypt. The sovereignty is now to the people.”
He said the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will set Military council will set a timeline for the peaceful transition of power.
The biggest turnout was in Alexandria with 1.5 million going to vote. The Delta governorate of Sharqeya came second. The committee is yet to release a geographical breakdown of the vote.
Minor violations were reported. Attia said the committee received 10 complaints and they were referred to the prosecution. One ballot box in Qaliubiya was invalidated.
The violations included attempts to sway voters, the closure of some polling stations ahead of the pre-set time, the absence of judges in some polling stations, the absence of phosphoric ink in a few stations and the possibility of removing it easily, according to the Egyptian Coalition for Monitoring Elections.
According to a statement they released late Saturday, one judge in Dokki refused to sign unstamped voting cards and a number of women wearing a full face veil (niqab) in Alexandria and Cairo refused to remove their gloves and use phosphoric ink or allow judges to check their identity.
Outside Cairo, a number of polling stations monitored by Daily News Egypt included female officials on call to check the identity of women wearing the niqab.
Coalition’s observers also reported two cases of paying people to vote in favor of the constitutional amendments in polling stations at Marg and Aswan governorate.
Votes are invalidated if the voters make any other marks on the ballot, if they mark both yes and no, or if it’s proven that they voted more than once.
Twelve polling stations, according to the statement, weren’t open for voters until noon and in some stations until 1 pm.
Presidential hopeful and former head of the IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei was attacked Saturday by what he called “organized thugs” when he arrived at a polling station in Moqqatam with his family, and hence prevented from voting.
Legal activist, Ragia Omran, was arrested by military police in front of a polling station that she was monitoring, but was released hours later.
Omran was reportedly detained at Cairo Security Directorate and lawyers were prevented from seeing here, according to the Front for Defending Egyptian Protestors (FDEP).
She was transferred to military prosecution in Nasr City before being released.
Four human rights organizations filed a complaint citing the violations to the Supreme Judicial Commission supervising the referendum.
Media reports Sunday said that leaked results indicated that a majority of voters approved the amendments.
A survey conducted Thursday by Thawra Stats think tank and released a day before the referendum, said that 53.5 percent of voters sampled from 26 governorates said they will vote “yes” for the constitutional amendments.
“We found that many citizens were unaware of the referendum as we surveyed voters’ tendencies and their political affiliations,” said Seif Al-Khwanky, researcher at Thawra Stats.
According to the survey, 78 percent of those who support the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) accepted the amendments, but they constituted only 18 percent of those who said they will vote “yes”.
Committee head, First Deputy to the State Council President Mohamed Attia, speaks at the press conference on Sunday. (Daily News Egypt Photo/Hassan Ibrahim)
