Egypt votes ‘yes’ to constitution in historic referendum (PHOTOS)
Egyptian National Rescue Front leader and Former Egyptian presidential candidate Hamdin Sabahi speaks during a press conference in Cairo on December 23, 2012. Egypt’s opposition said it will appeal a referendum seen as voting in a new constitution backed by ruling Islamists, and vowed to keep up a struggle that has spawned weeks of protests and instability.
Egypt finished up the second part of a vote on their new constitution Saturday, tentatively ushering it in with 64 percent approval, according to unofficial tallies done overnight.
“Even if there are problems with certain articles, we’ll amend it in parliament,” Magda Hamza Karam, a 61 year-old housewife from Dokki who voted for Morsi in this year’s presidential election, told GlobalPost. “Why stop now? Why vote no?”
However, while the constitution is a milestone, is is also incredibly divisive. Many have pointed out to its human rights misgivings and exclusion of provisions for certain facets of Egyptian society.
“A crack has emerged in Egypt; there’s a gap, there’s blood and deaths, there’s extremism,” said Ahmed Maher, an activist-turned-delegate in the assembly that wrote a draft of the charter. “Something has happened between Egyptians that would make the results bad no matter what the outcome of the constitutional vote."