The constitutional referendum will be held on two stages, the final stage will take place next Saturday.. (DNE/ FILE PHOTO/ Hassan Ibrahim) President Mohamed Morsy has issued a decree to organise the constitutional referendum into two stages, the final stage will take place next Saturday. The first stage will take place on 15 December as expected, when 10 governorates including Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut will vote, reported state-owned news agency MENA. The 17 remaining governorates will vote on 22 December; they include Giza, the Red Sea and Qena. Presidential sources told Daily News Egypt that the decree was issued in response to the Supreme Electoral Committee's (SEC) request. The SEC is tasked with organising the process of holding the referendum. The referendum is governed by an old constitutional declaration issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in March 2011, it states that the referendum must take place within 15 days of the constitution being drafted. Dalia Zeyada, executive director of Ibn Khaldoun centre for developmental studies said, “[splitting the referendum] is an attempt to get around the [SCAF] constitutional declaration." Zeyada said that President Morsy previously refused to postpone the referendum, using the March constitutional declaration as the basis of his argument, but “now they are going against the March declaration." A disadvantage of the two-stage decision, Zeyada said, is that the results of each stage will be announced separately. “So the results of the first stage would be announced before the second stage begins. This could influence the decision of the voters in the second stage." And if the results of the first stage are withheld until the second stage is complete, Zeyada's concern is that this would affect the integrity of the entire process. Cairo University professor and constitutional expert Ra'fat Fouda said “this referendum is void." He said that calling for a referendum is within the president's jurisdiction, but not within the jurisdiction of the SEC. “Morsy called for a referendum for 15 December, he didn't mention that it would be held in two stages." Egyptian expatriates have already started voting on the referendum Wednesday. The Judges club in Cairo announced on Tuesday that its judges would boycott the supervision of the referendum. Additional reporting by Ethar Shalaby
