CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s Islamist-backed constitution received a “yes” majority in a final round of voting on a referendum that saw a low voter turnout, but the deep divisions it has opened up threaten to fuel continued turmoil.
Passage is a victory for Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, but a costly one. The bruising battle over the past month stripped away hope that the long-awaited constitution would bring a national consensus on the path Egypt will take after shedding its autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.
Instead, Morsi disillusioned many non-Islamists who had once backed him and has become more reliant on his core support in the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Hard-liners in his camp are determined to implement provisions for stricter rule by Islamic law in the charter, which is likely to further fuel divisions.
Saturday’s voting in 17 of Egypt’s 27 provinces was the second and final round of the referendum. Preliminary results released early today by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood showed that 71.4 percent of those who voted Saturday said “yes” after 95.5 percent of the ballots were counted. Only about 8 million of the 25 million Egyptians eligible to vote — a turnout of about 30 percent — cast their ballots. The Brotherhood has accurately predicted election results in the past by tallying results provided by its representatives at polling centers.
In the first round of voting, about 56 percent said “yes” to the charter. The turnout then was about 32 percent.
The results of the two rounds mean the referendum was approved by about 63 percent.
Official results are expected Monday.
The new constitution would go into effect once official results are announced.
Also Saturday, Egyptian Vice President Mahmoud Mekki, a career judge whose post will be eliminated by the new charter, announced his resignation, raising suspicion among opposition members that the move had been triggered by a break with the country’s elected president, Mohammed Morsi.
“I have realized for a while that politics does not suit my natural profession as a judge,” Mekki said in a statement late in the day. He said he had submitted his resignation Nov. 7 but the request had been “delayed” while he fulfilled various vice-presidential duties.
State TV at first also reported the resignation of the Central Bank governor, Farouq el-Oqdah, but soon after reported that the Cabinet denied he has stepped down, in a possible sign of confusion. El-Oqdah, in his post since 2003, has reportedly been seeking to step down, but in recent weeks the administration was trying to persuade him to stay on. The government is eager to show some stability in the economy as the Egyptian pound has been sliding and a much-needed $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund has been postponed.
Although the new constitution was expected to win approval, clashes between its Islamist supporters and opposition members on the eve of Saturday’s vote highlighted the lingering uncertainty about Egypt’s political future.
Divisions over the constitution have pitted Morsi, who is backed by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, against a broad coalition of liberals, leftists and Christians who accuse the Islamists of seeking to entrench their own power and ideology amid a tumultuous transition from authoritarian rule. The Islamists say the new constitution and the Islamist-dominated assembly that drafted it reflect Egypt’s democratically expressed will.
Morsi’s advisers said that after the ballots were counted in coming days, he would deliver a televised address calling for unity and reconciliation.
In what Morsi’s advisers called a significant step toward dissolving tensions, the president plans to appoint some of his opponents to the Islamistdominated upper house of the parliament. Although largely powerless, the upper house, known as the Shura Council, will act as the main legislature until the coming re-election of the lower house, which was dissolved by the courts.
After the charter’s passage, the government is required to hold parliamentary elections within 60 days.
The main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, said it would now start rallying for the elections, expected early next year, of the lower house, which would then become the lawmaking body.
“We feel more empowered because of the referendum. We proved that at least we are half of society [that] doesn’t approve of all this. We will build on it,” the front’s spokesman, Khaled Daoud, said.
Some of Morsi’s opponents voiced a feeling of frustrated resignation as they went to the polls Saturday, casting their ballots against what they called a “Muslim Brotherhood constitution” even as they predicted that the referendum would pass.
“We voted no, but we know that the results will be a yes,” said Mervat Nassim Ibrahim, a Christian homemaker, who voted in the religiously mixed working-class district of Shubra al-Kheima, north of Cairo. “It’s just like the presidency. We didn’t vote for Morsi, but he won anyway,” she said.
Opposition members say that the constitution, which was hastily approved last month by an assembly dominated by Islamists, fails to enshrine the rights of women and minority groups while leaving the door open to fundamentalist interpretations of Islamic law. Ibrahim and many others said Saturday they believed that the charter, if passed, would carry dire consequences for Egypt’s Christian minority in a country already fraught with sectarian tension.
The constitution would also give al-Azhar, the country’s highest Islamic body, extraordinary power to pass judgment on the religious merits of the nation’s laws.
Opposition activists and no-voters said Saturday that approval of the charter would invariably lead to further unrest.
“The opposition is not going to calm down after this,” said Faten Mubarak, a housewife who voted no in the poor and densely crowded neighborhood of Imbaba, in Cairo’s sister city, Giza. “They will go out to the streets again, and it might lead to a civil war,” she said. “We hope not, but people are nervous.”
Opposition protesters clashed with Islamists in the coastal city of Alexandria on Friday night, hurling stones and setting fire to two buses as police fired tear gas to separate the two sides in the hours before the polls opened.
Opposition activists accused the Muslim Brotherhood of committing serious electoral violations in the Dec. 15 round of voting. And many cited fresh claims regarding Saturday’s voting, including voter intimidation and delayed poll openings in several districts. In some areas, posters urging Egyptians to vote yes adorned the outer walls of schools that were serving as polling stations, and arguments broke out between voters and monitors.
Also Saturday, opposition activists said some polling stations opened late. At least two judges were removed for coercing voters to cast yes ballots, the official MENA news agency said.
In Shubra al-Kheima, where the Brotherhood is strong, witnesses said they spotted religious clerics rallying voters from street corners. But the polls remained largely peaceful, and polling officials said any violations had been minor.
The Islamists — long representing the most formidable opposition to former president Hosni Mubarak — have scored victories, albeit with shrinking margins, in every election since a popular uprising ended his authoritarian rule two years ago.
Liberals and secularists have accused the Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations of exploiting religion to gain votes. Many also pointed to the slim majority of 56 percent on Dec. 15 as evidence of a country divided.
“When 45 percent of people say no, it is a strong indication,” liberal opposition leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said in a speech Thursday. “Some don’t read or write, but they are conscious that they should not be tricked,” he said.
The Islamists, in turn, have painted their poorly organized opponents as sore losers, infidels and beneficiaries of the former government who are seeking to undermine democratic results through mass protest.
“They’re not going to accept it. They will go to the streets and say that the referendum was rigged and it was full of flaws because they do not understand democracy,” said Umm Osama, a mathematics teacher wearing a black face veil. “People need to understand that democracy is with the ballot box.”
Some even cited a low majority at the polls as a sign of legitimacy. “The referendum will pass, and not like the old regime’s elections did,” said Mustafa Abdel Menam Hassan, a rickshaw driver, referring to rigged Mubarak-era votes that gave the autocratic leader outrageous landslide victories.
“It will pass with a respectable percentage, maybe 59 percent,” predicted Hassan, who then referred to re-election of the U.S. president “That’s democracy. Obama won with 1 percent.”
Information for this article was contributed by Abigail Hauslohner and Sharaf al-Hourani of The Washington Post; by Hamza Hendawi, Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael and Aya Batrawy of The Associated Press; and by David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/23/2012