The National Elections Authority spokesman Judge Mahmoud El-Sharif has said the results of the ongoing referendum are expected to be announced by 27 April, adding that the first day of voting on Saturday saw heavy participation in all governorates. 

"The referendum process is being conducted in 10,878 polling stations and 13,919 committees, while the number of judges supervising the referendum is about 20,000 from different judicial bodies, and they are assisted by some 120,000 employees," he said during a press conference on Saturday.

The number of eligible voters is 61,344,503; the number of male voters is 30,788,369, while the number of women is 30,446,134, he said.

El-Sharif said that all polling stations opened at 9am apart from a few in Upper Egypt's Minya and Sohag and the Nile Delta governorate of Mansoura, which saw a 45-minute delay due to administrative procedures. 

He said that voting has been conducted with "transparency, without ambiguity.”

Fifty-eight local and 22 foreign NGOs have been following the referendum, he said, and 152 international media outlets and 40 local outlets have been covering it. 

The amendments being voted on would allow for the creation of vice presidents, mandate a quarter of MPs be women, establish a second chamber (the Senate), and increase presidential terms, as well as allowing President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to run again after his current and second term expires.