Egypt's military-installed government announces 98% approval of new constitution

The Constitutional Referendum Commission, composed mainly of pro-coup judges, announced Saturday evening that roughly 98% of voters approved the draft constitution with 38.6% turnout.

Nabil Salib, the judge chairing the commission, said that 20.5 million took part in the referendum, out of 53 million eligible voters. The draft has been approved by 19,985 million voters (98.1%), while 381,000 (1.9%) rejected it.

The referendum was boycotted by the Muslim Brotherhood and other political forces opposed to the military coup that ousted the democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013.

The Anti-Coup Alliance questioned the validity of the official results, and said that the real turnout was as low as 10% and that the boycot succeeded to turn voters away from the process.

The Alliance renewed calls for “the continuation of peaceful escalation”, and urged “revolutionary youth” to put aside partisan affiliations and brace for “angry waves of January 25”.

The April 6 Youth Movement stated that the abstention of the youth from participation is a sign of widespread boycot of the process which it dismissed as “absurd”.

Transparency International criticized government officials for their public support for the “yes” vote and for the biased media coverage of the referendum.

Moreover, the Egyptian Rights Groups Coalition cited “systematic violations” in the process, adding that the results should not be recognised as legitimate since the process was carried out in an environment that violated freedoms and human rights.

Source: Pls48

See Also:

• Turnout in Egypt’s 2014 referendum 11.3%, says NGO