The results are in
Issandr El Amrani18 million voted, 14 million (77%) said "yes" and 4 million said "no."
It's a mandate for the military to some extent, but the minority is substantial enough to make it clear consensus is not overwhelming — even if there were different reasons for voting yes or no.
One nice aspect of this is that the commission overseeing the referendum is taking critical questions from the press, explaining where there was fraud, assuring that perpetrators will be punished (2-5 years in prison). That's pretty unprecedented, previously the government just ignored allegations of fraud.
My analysis what is problematic with the referendum still stands, and we'll have to wait to see if the case for massive fraud can convincingly be made. Overall, though, I suspect that this referendum, is in its conduct, was generally a step forward for Egypt.
Reader Comments (6)
"One nice aspect of this is that the commission overseeing the referendum is taking critical questions from the press, explaining where there was fraud, assuring that perpetrators will be punished (2-5 years in prison). That's pretty unprecedented, previously the government just ignored allegations of fraud."
Disagree! I remember during the press conference for the Shura Council election results journos raised allegations of violations and the response was identical to what it was tonight when the bloke said that there were "10 allegations of simple violations" and refused to go into details. Lack of transparency continues.
The result seems not credible to me. So many voting yes? Well, I didn't get the impression that there would be such a difference, not until I heard about MBs and Salafist crazies running around the country emotionally blackmailing people to vote yes, in the name of Islam. There is something not quite right in Egypt right now.
I thought I saw a reference to a chart of voting results by governorate; can you point us in the right direction for that? Thanks in advance.
Very much appreciate the discussion and debate on substance and process of the referendum here and on twitter. Thanks to you and all #Jan 25 posters.
Not suprising.....Who could compete with the Islamic proganda and their "divine duty" to approve the amendments. The whole thing was rushed, 17 days between accouncing the amendments and the referendum itself plus the decree by the army of a media blackout for the last two days because god forbid people would actually comprehend what they're precisily voting for. Obviously the majority of voters whether for or against haven't fully grasped the ramifications of these amendments, while queing overheard somebody say "I'm voting YES to spite the Copts" or something to that effect. Professors and teachers telling thier students to vote YES in public schools, immams telling the faithful to vote YES, the MB accusing those against the amendments being "foreign agents" ....etc.
So yeah....while the world might be in awe of this "sprit of democracy" , from what I saw yesterday I'm still unconvinced and I wouldn't hold my breath about those allegations of fraud btw.
How many people were eligible to vote in the first place? Egypt is a country of 80 million! At least half or even slightly less than that should have been able to voice their opinion but this is a really low turn-out.
Am I missing something?
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