On referendum day the opposition despite its numerical minority, was highly vocal and visible in its denunciation of the constitutional amendments, reports Fatemah Farag In the weeks leading up to this week's referendum on constitutional reform, the opposition press voiced anger at both the form and content of the process. "The [NDP] has betrayed the Egyptian people and will drink the poison they have placed in the constitution," Mahmoud Abaza, head of the liberal Wafd Party, told hundreds of party members at a rally held in Doqqi Sunday night, while Al-Ghad Party released a statement saying the proposed constitutional amendments "have revealed that the regime in Egypt is insistent on... closing the door on political reform." "The government has sequestered the Egyptian people's right to an opinion," exclaimed Rifaat El-Said, head of the leftist leaning Tagammu Party. Minutes later, party members were harassed by security forces on the street outside the Tagammu's headquarters. Earlier this month, a coalition of the Wafd, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Tagammu, the Nasserist Karama party and independent MPs announced a united front against the proposed amendments, calling on the public to boycott the referendum. The Democratic Front, on the other hand, resisted the boycott, arguing instead that people should go to the polls and vote against the amendments. "The anger which people have seen us voice over the past couple of weeks is a reflection of what the Egyptian people feel," argued Ahmed Hassan, the secretary-general of the Nasserist Party. Similar sentiments were expressed by blogger Khaled El-Balshy, as he sought to explain why a handful of young people went to Tahrir Square on Sunday night to protest against the constitutional changes. "The opposition remains confined to activist circles which -- with the exception of the Muslim Brotherhood -- do not have the ability to mobilise large numbers of people. Yet it would not have been right to let the government get away with these amendments, without at least having expressed our anger or attemping to clarify why they, and the process that brought them into being, are wrong and not supported by the Egyptian people," said El-Balshy. The crowd that gathered in Tahrir Square was no more than 50 strong and included many young women. Yet the security response was fierce. Protesters were manhandled by the police in Talaat Harb Street and when they attempted to chant anti-government slogans were swiftly cordoned off behind a wall of anti-riot police. One of the many police trucks that had been parked downtown since early morning backed into Talaat Harb Street and was immediately filled with young men and women. According to a statement signed by eight non-governmental organisations, including the New Women Society, the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the Egyptian Association for Increasing Political Participation, the evening began with "random stop and searches" and ended with the "arresting of bloggers/ activists who had been beaten, assaulted with pepper spray and sexually harassed." Between 13 to 20 people are said to have been rounded up from downtown on Sunday night. Groups of detainees were reported to have been released in distant locations -- some in the Petrified Forest National Park -- after having been driven around all night between various prisons and police stations. The following morning 200 people demonstrated at the Journalists Syndicate and announced a sit-in until all detainees were released. Yet when the news that they had been freed broke out, security forces remained reluctant to let activists out of the syndicate. According to El-Balshy and others present, they were only allowed out at 9:30pm on Monday. Otherwise, the day of the referendum passed unremarkably. While the government is claiming a 27 per cent turnout the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) says the real figure is closer to five. "The government's figures do not make sense. The parliamentary elections, according to official figures, attracted just 23 per cent of voters. Why would anyone think this referendum would fare better?" asked Ahmed Hassan. Hussein Abdel-Razeq, secretary- general of the Tagammu Party, says the low turnout is a result of the Egyptian people being excluded from the debate concerning the constitutional amendments. "This was not only because it is a difficult or complicated subject," believes Abdel-Razeq, "but because people no longer believe reform is possible." Their response, he says, has been to turn their backs on political activity as they struggle to meet their daily needs. While Abdel-Razeq and others would not go so far as to claim their campaign was responsible for the low voter turn out, a consensus is emerging that the unified position of the opposition and coverage by the privately-owned press played a part in encouraging the public to stay away. Out of the 34 articles due to be amended, the opposition's greatest ire was focused on changes to Article 88 that remove full judicial supervision of elections. In 2000 the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that Article 88 made full judicial supervision of elections obligatory. Article 179 also came under fire, with critics saying it granted the president powers that stripped individuals of guarantees previously afforded by the constitution. According to Yehia El-Gamal, legal expert and a senior member of the Democratic Front, "the amendment of Article 179 removes the best part of the 1971 constitution, which considered personal freedoms as a natural right not to be violated." "The amendment of this article," argues El-Gamal, "opens the door wide to a police state by removing all personal guarantees." The amended Article 179 also gives the president the right to refer civilians implicated in terrorist acts to military tribunals. Many would argue that it is all a storm in a teacup. "What difference does it make," asked a government clerk who preferred not to be named as he attempted to cross Talaat Harb street on Sunday night. Abdel-Razeq's response is to point out that, while "the state forged election results in the past and has exercised oppression, people always had legal recourse to the constitution". Now, he says, this has been taken away. Amin adds that, "before the constitutional amendments you could point out that certain actions of the state were unconstitutional, whereas now no one can hold them accountable." The opposition also denounced the lack of due process. "How can people be expected to give a blanket yes or no to 34 different articles, some of which are semantic changes, others of which legalise a variety of anti-democratic practices? It is not possible. The whole referendum process is flawed," says Abdel-Razeq. Voting, believes Hassan, would have lent the whole process a gloss of legitimacy. But the public, argues Kamal Abbas, head of the Centre for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS), is increasingly unwilling to be exploited. Monitoring this week's referendum in working class districts, the centre identified two distinct phenomena: "It is a tradition for factories to haul their workers into buses and send them off to vote. This year we found that people were getting off the buses in droves and were unwilling to enter the voting centres. In fact, workers at factories such as Helwan Iron and Steel and Tora Cement that have witnessed high levels of unrest refused to participate at all with just 10 employees at the first, and four at the second factory voting." The second trend they identified is that of those who were herded to the polls, many voted against the amendments despite the centre's own findings that a majority of workers believed the amendments would have no impact on their daily lives. The only exceptions were articles that govern general freedoms. "Everyone we spoke to had a story to tell about being harassed by the police in the course of daily life. People are scared that this is now being legalised," says Abbas. While no one in the opposition expected to win this battle " taking a strong stand and insisting on it is an incremental process that will pay off somewhere down the line" argues Hassan. Working class reaction to this week's referendum seems to reinforce his argument. Now, though, the opposition must begin to look forward. "Top of the list is to take a strong stand against the laws -- particularly the anti-terrorism law and the political participation law --that the government will now try to pass on the back of the new constitution." Otherwise, the challenges facing the opposition remain pretty much the same. In the words of Hassan: "the top item on the agenda is to make inroads into the Egyptian street and public. If the people do not become a part of this equation, then there is not much that can be hoped for."
