CAIRO, Egypt — With their nation’s future at stake, Egyptians lined up Saturday to vote on a draft constitution after weeks of turmoil that have left them deeply divided between Islamist supporters of the charter and those who fear it will usher in religious rule.
The referendum caps a nearly two-year struggle over the post-revolutionary identity of Egypt after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian regime, with the latest crisis over the charter evolving into a dispute over whether Egypt should move toward a religious state under President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and its ultraconservative Salafi allies, or one that retains secular traditions and an Islamic character.
Underlining the tension, some 120,000 army troops were deployed to help the police protect polling stations and state institutions after clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents over the past three weeks left at least 10 people dead and about 1,000 wounded. The large-scale deployment did not stop a mob of supporters of ultraconservative cleric Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail attacking the Cairo offices of the liberal Wafd party, a member of an opposition alliance that has campaigned against the draft constitution. During the voting, 19 people were injured in confrontations outside polling stations, MENA reported, citing the Health Ministry.
“Today I would like to offer my condolences to the Egyptian people on the collapse of the rule of law,” Wafd leader El-Sayyed el-Badawi said.
The opposition called for a “no” vote, while Morsi’s supporters said the constitution will help end the political instability that has roiled Egypt since the autocratic Mubarak was overthrown. Clerics, from the pulpits of mosques, have defended the constitution as a document that champions Islam.
The draft would empower Islamists to carry out the most widespread and strictest implementation of Islamic law that modern Egypt has seen. That authority rests on the three articles that explicitly mention Shariah, or Islamic law, as well as obscure legal language buried in a number of other articles that few noticed during the charter’s drafting but that Islamists insisted on including.
According to supporters and opponents of the draft, the charter not only makes Muslim clerics the arbiters for many civil rights, but it also could give a constitutional basis for citizens to set up Saudi-style “religious police” to monitor morals and enforce segregation of the sexes, imposition of Islamic dress codes and even harsh punishments for adultery and theft — regardless of what the laws on the books say.
Ashraf el-Sherif, adjunct lecturer in political science at the American University in Cairo, said political instability is unlikely to subside regardless of the referendum result.
“If the document is rejected, there will be no stability for months as we try to agree on a new constitution,” he said by phone. “If the result is yes, there still will be no stability as opposition will continue,” especially if Morsi pushes ahead with tax increases he suspended before the vote, el-Sherif said.
When voting day finally arrived, the anger and frustration of the past three weeks remained and scenes of voters hotly debating the cons and pros of the constitution or countering one another’s take on Morsi, the Brotherhood, the Salafis or reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei were common.
Some Egyptians said their nation’s new Islamist leaders had unfairly steamrollered the charter over the objections of other parties and the Coptic Christian Church, and that as a result the new charter failed to protect fundamental rights. Others blamed the Islamists’ opponents for refusing to negotiate in an effort to undermine democracy because they could not win at the ballot box. Many expressed discontent with political leaders on both sides of the fight.
“Neither group can accept its opposition,” said Ahmed Ibrahim, 40, a government clerk waiting to vote in a middle-class neighborhood in the Nasr City area of Cairo. Whatever the outcome, he said, “one group in their hearts will feel wronged, and the other group will gloat over their victory, and so the wounds will remain.”
Several voters said they had studied all 225 articles carefully and cited obscure provisions, like a clause suggesting that wages should reflect productivity instead of prices, or another about political-asylum seekers. Some had printed out copies from the Internet and marked them up in pen.
The referendum on a new constitution once promised to be a day when Egyptians realized their visions of democracy, pluralism and national unity that defined the 18-dayrevolt against Mubarak. But then came nearly two years of a chaotic political transition, in which Islamists, liberals, leftists, the military and the courts all jockeyed for power over an ever-shifting timetable.
The document that Egyptians voted on was a rushed revision of the old Mubarak charter, faulted by many international experts as a missed opportunity stuffed with broad statements about Egyptian identity but riddled with loopholes regarding the protection of rights.
“Those who wrote the constitution are God-fearing men,” Mohammed Hassan el-Khatab, a bearded 52-year-old government employee, yelled as he stood in line outside a polling center in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
Girgis Bakheet, a 56-yearold Christian decorator, overheard el-Khatab and decided to weigh in on the debate with an instant dismissal of the notion that being God-fearing is a qualification for writing a constitution.
“This is a constitution that is stillborn. It doesn’t represent all people. Arguing that it observes God’s laws is a good thing, but only on the face of it. God has nothing to do with constitutions and elections,” he said.
Critics, meanwhile, are questioning the charter’s legitimacy after a majority of the judges said they would not supervise the vote. Rights groups also warned of opportunities for widespread fraud, and the opposition said a decision to hold the vote on two separate days — Saturday and Dec. 22, the next Saturday — to make up for the shortage of judges left the door open for initial results to sway voter opinion in the next round.
The Muslim Brotherhood began to issue partial results based on its own exit polls late Saturday. They showed the “yes” vote to be ahead.
The shortage of judges was reflected in the chaos engulfing some polling stations, which led the election commission to extend voting by four hours, until 11 p.m.
The violations reported by monitors included polling centers without judges to oversee the process; civil employees illegally replacing the judges; ballot papers not officially stamped as per regulations; campaigning inside polling stations; and Christian voters being turned away.
Mohammed Ahmed, a retired army officer from Cairo, said bearded men he suspects of being Muslim Brotherhood members were whispering “vote yes” to men standing in line outside a polling center in Cairo’s poor district of Arab el-Maadi.
Egypt has 51 million eligible voters, half of whom were supposed to cast their ballots Saturday in 10 provinces, and the rest next week.
“I am definitely voting no,” Habiba el-Sayed, a 49-yearold housewife who wears the Muslim veil, or hijab, said in Alexandria. “Morsi took wrong decisions and there is no stability.”
Another female voter in Alexandria, 22-year-old English teacher Yomna Hesham, said she was voting no because the draft is “vague” and ignores women’s rights.
Egypt’s latest crisis began when Morsi issued a decree Nov. 22 giving himself and the assembly writing the draft immunity from judicial oversight so the document could be finalized before an expected court ruling dissolving the panel.
On Nov. 30, the document was passed by an assembly composed mostly of Islamists, in a marathon session despite a walkout by secular activists and Christians from the 100-member panel.
The schism caused by the crisis was on display when a powerful member of the Brotherhood, Khairat el-Shater, went to a Cairo polling center to vote. Women standing in line yelled insults at him and his group, calling him a dog and a liar. El-Shater was the Brotherhood’s first choice for a presidential candidate but a Mubarak-era conviction disqualified him, allowing Morsi to take his place.
In Alexandria, a group of women complained that a judge with suspected Brotherhood links intentionally stalled the process to prevent them from voting by taking long breaks to eat, pray and talk on the phone. Angry and frustrated, the women blocked the street outside the polling center.
Olivia Ghita of Cairo also criticized the constitution as being tailored for the Brotherhood.
“At one point in our history, Cleopatra, a woman, ruled Egypt. Now you have a constitution that makes women not even second-class but thirdclass citizens,” said Ghita.
If the constitution is approved by a simple majority of voters, the Islamists empowered when Mubarak was ousted would likely gain more clout. The upper house of parliament, dominated by Islamists, would be given the authority to legislate until a new parliament is elected.
If it is defeated, elections would be held within three months for a new panel to write a new constitution. In the meantime, legislative powers would remain with Morsi.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian security official said ousted Mubarak slipped in the bathroom in the prison where is serving a life sentence, hitting his head.
The official said the ailing Mubarak, 84, was treated in Cairo’s Tora prison Saturday for head injuries and a chest bruise. He said Mubarak had slipped before, two months ago but did not injure himself.
Since Mubarak was convicted of failing to stop killings of protesters during the uprising, there have been conflicting reports about his health.
Information for this article was contributed by Hamza Hendawi, Maggie Michael, Sarah El Deeb, Aya Batrawy and staff members of The Associated Press; by David D. Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim, Mayy El-Sheikh and Mai Ayyad of The New York Times; and by Mariam Fam, Salma El Wardany and Deema Almashabi of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/16/2012