UPDATE 26.5.05: Interior minister Habib El-Adli announced in a press conference today the results of Wednesday�s referendum. According to Al-Adli, 82.9 percent voted yes to amending article 76 of the constitution which allows for multi-candidate presidential elections. Voter turnout was 53.6 percent, he said. The results were immediately contested by the opposition which claimed that voter turnout was much lower than official figures. Abdel-Halim Qandil who is spokesman of the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kifaya) suggested that voter turnout did not exceed "five per cent." Day of reckoning Egypt is on the threshold of a new political era, Gamal Essam El-Din reports In yesterday's nationwide referendum, the 22nd since 1956, 32 million voters were called upon to vote either in favour or against the amendment of article 76 of the constitution which will allow multi-candidate presidential elections for the first time in Egypt's history. The amendment, proposed by President Hosni Mubarak on 26 February, has come under fierce criticism from opposition forces who called for a boycott of the vote, claiming the restrictions on candidacy contained in the amendment make it impossible for independents to run. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), together with security forces, government ministries and the state-run media, were mobilised to scupper the opposition boycott. In a televised speech on Tuesday President Hosni Mubarak appealed to voters to cast their ballots, both in the referendum and in autumn's presidential and parliamentary elections. Yet despite the official campaign polling stations saw little activity yesterday, with the majority of voters electing to stay at home. Earlier referendums have seldom exceeded a 40 per cent turn out. Yesterday's referendum is unlikely to exceed 20 per cent, though according to sources the Interior Ministry was expecting at least 35 per cent of registered voters to have cast their ballots by 5pm. The result of the referendum will be announced by Interior Minister Habib El-Adli this afternoon. Voting day was accompanied by demonstrations in Cairo and in 20 other cities. In Cairo Kifaya, the Egyptian Movement for Change, staged a demonstration in front of the Saad Zaghlul mausoleum, close to the People's Assembly. Kifaya activists said they had originally planned to stage a protest in front of the Press Syndicate in Downtown Cairo but were forced to change the venue in the face of heavy handed tactics by security forces. The Kifaya protest was soon infiltrated by pro- Mubarak demonstrators who did their best, aided by security forces using batons and truncheons, to disperse the protesters. Kamal Khalil, a Kifaya activist, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "central police forces used truncheons and hired thugs to attack us." Some demonstrators did manage to access the Press Syndicate, where they held an impromptu press conference. According to the group around 30 Kifaya activists were arrested. "Today it was made clear that anyone saying no to Hosni Mubarak faces harsh treatment," said Kifaya coordinator George Isshaq. Kifaya's spokesman Abdel-Halim Qandil denounced the amendment of article 76 as "nothing but a scam". "President Mubarak," he said, "is in effect asking the people to allow him, and then his son, to monopolise the presidency." Kifaya activists yesterday distributed thousands of leaflets promoting the referendum boycott. The leaflets claimed President Mubarak's decision to amend article 76 was aimed mainly at currying favour with the United States and Israel. Few expected the referendum to pass without the usual voting irregularities, and it seems that they were right. In Maadi a group of women interviewed by the Weekly said they had been prevented from casting their ballots because they did not have voting cards. "This came as a surprise," said one, "because we were told it was okay to use identity cards to vote." Elsewhere in Cairo reporters said only a trickle of voters had turned up at polling stations though in Helwan and Maadi factory workers appeared to have been mobilised to vote for the amendment. In Al-Haram district of Giza, NDP MP Rashad Al- Bortoqali said it was a great honour for him to pay people to vote for the amendment. "This is a democratic step that we all must rally behind," he said. Said Mohamed Abbas, a farmer in Al-Haram's Shabramant neighbourhood, said he would be voting in favour of the amendment in the hope that "it will put an end to police bullying of ordinary citizens." Dalia Omran, interviewed in Cairo's Abdeen district, said that "unlike previous ballots the government and the NDP have tried their best to convince people to vote in an attempt to show America that the people support their policies." "But we know," she continued, "that the whole thing will end up with next September's presidential election being the usual one-man-show." Yesterday's vote will be followed by a new law regulating presidential elections which, revealed NDP Assistant Secretary-General Kamal El-Shazli, will stipulate that presidential candidates be born to Egyptian parents, be 40 years of age or above, have completed their military service and hold only Egyptian nationality. It could also be followed, argues Mohamed El- Sayed Said, a researcher at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, with a clampdown on the opposition. "The support Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif received from the US administration during his recent visit to Washington and Laura Bush's praise for President Mubarak gives the NDP a green light to continue to manipulate political reform in its favour," said El-Said.
