Cairo: Tensions were rising late Saturday over a divisive new constitution being put to Egyptian voters in the first round of a referendum pushed through by President Mohamed Morsi despite weeks of opposition protests.
The opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, accused Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood of “vote rigging” but stopped short of calling a boycott.
Instead it appealed to Egypt’s 51 million voters to reject the referendum, in which voting was extended by four hours to 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) because of long lines late into the night.
The opposition’s allegation added to the highly charged atmosphere around the vote, which was preceded by three weeks of anti-Morsi protests and clashes in Cairo last week that killed eight people and injured hundreds.
Late Saturday, riot police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of hardline Islamists who attacked the central Cairo headquarters of the opposition liberal Wafd Party with fireworks and stones, officers at the scene told AFP.
On the eve of the referendum, clashes between stone-throwing and sword wielding Islamists and opposition supporters erupted in the second-biggest city of Alexandria, injuring 23 people according to the official MENA news agency.
To ensure security, 120,000 troops were reinforcing 130,000 police.
Voting was being staggered, with half the country voting on Saturday and the other half a week later because many judges were not willing to oversee polling.
Official results will be announced after the second round, an official told AFP. But informal results from the first round were expected to trickle out hours after polls closed on Saturday and tallying began.
Morsi looked calm and confident as he cast his ballot at a polling station near the presidential palace in Cairo early Saturday, state television showed. He made no comment to the media.
The Muslim Brotherhood has thrown its formidable organisational machine behind a campaign in favour of the draft constitution.
The proposed charter “offers rights and stability,” said one Cairo voter backing it, Kassem Abdallah.
It will help “the country return to normal,” agreed another, Ibrahim Mahmoud, a teacher.
But many opposition voters were especially hostile toward the Brotherhood, which the Front believes wants to usher in strict sharia-style (Islamic) laws.
“I’m voting because I hate the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s very simple. They are liars,” said one voter, Abbas Abdelaziz, a 57-year-old accountant.
Omar Abdel Kader, a 60-year-old teacher, said he was voting “no” because the text “does not represent all Egyptians”.
Sally Rafid, a 28-year-old Christian, said: “There are many things in the constitution people don’t agree on, and it’s not just the articles on religion. I’m voting against it.”
International watchdogs, the UN human rights chief, the United States and the European Union have expressed reservations about the draft because of loopholes that could be used to weaken human rights, including those of women, and the independence of the judiciary.
Analysts said it was likely — but not certain — the draft constitution would be adopted.
Whatever the outcome, “lasting damage to the civility of Egyptian politics will be the main outcome of the current path Morsi has set Egypt on,” one analyst, Issandr El Amrani, wrote for his think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“If the ‘no’ vote wins, the Morsi presidency will have been fully discredited and the pressure for his resignation will only increase,” he said. “If ‘yes’ wins, the protest movement is unlikely to die down, (and) may radicalise.”
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