Irregularities Cloud Victory for Morsi in First Round of Referendum
Widespread reports of voting violations and irregularities have tainted the results of the first round of the referendum on Egypt’s draft constitution, which has passed according to early accounts, Mohannad Sabry reports.
CAIRO — After hours of counting votes, Egypt’s elections committee said final results of the constitutional referendum will be announced after the second phase on Dec. 22, as dozens of initial reports by political parties and news agencies all claimed the constitution passed.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, published a statement Sunday, saying: “4,588,147 or 56.5% of the turnout for the draft constitution while 3,524,178 or 43.5% voted against it.” Several other reports by local press said 60% voted for and 40% voted against.
No official statements were published by the elections committee regarding the voter turnout or the results of the first phase of the referendum held on Saturday [Dec. 15] in 10 governorates including the capital Cairo and the Mediterranean port of Alexandria where 6,327 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. for Egypt's 25 million registered voters.
Meanwhile, several independent human rights organizations demanded “canceling the results of the first phase and re-holding it while avoiding the irregularities in the second phase.”
