Egyptian Charter Vote

President Morsi's supporters say the new constitution will secure democracy

 

Although millions of Egyptians, living in poverty, and seeing their situation becoming worse as time goes on and the political and social insecurity has set into motion an even greater decline in the country's economic situation,  and despite hope that their country will finally become more stable, relatively few Egyptians made the trek to their polling stations.

A meagre 32% of eligible voters cast ballots in the latest and final round of voting.  Which had of necessity to be divided into two voting days a week apart because the judiciary refused to audit the voting, setting themselves aside and apart from an administration that has produced a draft constitution that they feel is too heavily weighted toward fundamental Islamism.

Yet that sadly inadequate turnout resulted in an even larger margin of "yes" votes approving the draft constitution.  The Brotherhood has announced that 64% of those who made the effort to vote have given their approval, so the die is cast.  Saturday's second stage vote produced a 71% approval rating, and with the first stage of 56% approval, the average resulted in a 64% approval.  According to the Brotherhood 99% of polling station results had been accounted for.

No one appears jubilant, not the regime supporters, and certainly not the opposition.  The country is exhausted. The opposition front has filed complaints to the country's top prosecutor along with the election commission, for an investigation into election fraud.  "The results of the referendum are for sure because of the rigging, violations and mismanagement that characterized it", claimed the National Salvation Front.

The vote, according to the National Salvation Front, was absent judicial supervision.  That led to overcrowding, pushing down the vote rate.  Those who were tasked with supervising the vote indulged in process interference, they claim.  Some of those involved firmly instructed people to vote "yes".  "We don't think the results reflect the true desires of the Egyptian people" claimed Khaled Dawoud.

In their defence, the Brotherhood responded by insisting violations were of a limited nature, however unfortunate.  The referendum's integrity should not be affected, as a result.  The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party anticipates that the passage of the constitution would be viewed as a "historic opportunity" that will amend divisions and a dialogue would be launched to restore confidence and stability.

In defence of their appealing to the public to view them as responsive to complaints, the 90 new members appointed to the Shura Council included a dozen Christians among the 30 Islamists, along with eight women four of whom are Christian.  To this ploy for public support, the opposition insists it has no wish for its member to be nominated to the Shura Council, out of a total of 270 members.

Parliamentary elections must now take place within two months.  And the opposition is preparing to contest those elections, despite their resistance to nominations to the Shura Council.

Co-operation and trust are understandably in short supply.