Egypt ends three-day referendum on constitutional amendments, results expected by 27 April
Marina Barsoum, , Monday 22 Apr 2019


Polling stations nationwide in Egypt closed their doors late on Monday, concluding the third and final day of voting in a referendum on 14 amendments to the constitution.

The National Elections Authority (NEA) says that the voting process passed smoothly.

For the past three days, Egyptians at home cast their ballots on 14 amendments to the 2014 charter, which were overwhelmingly approved by parliament, with 531 out of 596 members voting in favour, 22 voting against and one abstention.

Theamendmentsinclude changing the length of presidential terms from four to six years.

They also extend the second term of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, which is set to end in 2022, by two years, and allow him to run for office for another term in 2024.

El-Sisi was first elected president in 2014 and was re-elected last year in a landslide victory where he secured 97 percent of the vote.

Results

NEA spokesman Judge Mahmoud El-Sharif has said the results of the referendum are expected to be announced by the NEA on 27 April.

He also said that the authority will announce the result of the entire vote at once, for both Egyptians at home and abroad.

Voting inside Egypt

El-Sharif said that the referendum process was 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 also highlighted that the number of eligible voters is 61,344,503; the number of male voters is 30,788,369 and the number of female voters is 30,446,134, he said.

El-Sharif stressed in a press conference on the second day of voting that the process has been conducted "with transparency and 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.

Expat voting

Egyptians abroad began voting last Friday at 140 Egyptian consulates and embassies in 124 countries.

Polling stations inside the embassies of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Uganda, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries opened at 9am in each country’s local time.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), there are 9.5 million Egyptians living abroad in 2019.

During the 2014 constitutional referendum, the number of eligible overseas voters was 681,346 Egyptians, and an estimated 103,000 expatriates participated in the poll.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/330495.aspx