(AFP File Photo / Mahmoud Khaled)
Influential Islamist group Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya has announced that it will boycott the upcoming referendum on the constitution scheduled to take place on 14 and 15 January.
In a statement on its official website, Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya said it would “launch a popular and widespread campaign to invite the masses of Egyptians to boycott the referendum.”
“This constitution was developed by a secularist, exclusionary, unelected group that has sought to confiscate the Islamic identity, erode the role of Islamic law, and abolish all restrictions and controls of legitimacy and morality,” read the statement. “It violates the public and private rights of citizens and steals their dignity.”
The general assembly of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and member of the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, approved the boycott 75-25, according to their website.
“In the opinion of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, participation in the referendum process is a full recognition of the oppressive and illegitimate coup and their practices of repressive authoritarianism, and it represents the full acceptance of the fraud that certainly happened,” said the statement, adding that it would be “impossible” to hold a fair election in Egypt right now.
The Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, also announced that they will boycott the referendum. In a Wednesday statement on the Muslim Brotherhood website, the party accused those who drafted the document of “wanting to protect murderers and appoint one of them President of Egypt” while adding that the current government was repressing Egyptians to coerce them into approving the constitution.
