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AFP © <p>An Egyptian woman walks past a wall stained with ink by voters who tried to clean their marked fingers at a polling station in the historical City of the Dead district in Cairo, on December 15, 2012. Tensions were rising late Saturday over a divisive new constitution being put to Egyptian voters in the first round of a referendum pushed through by President Mohamed Morsi.</p>
CAIRO (AFP) – Counting was under way early Sunday after a first-round referendum on a divisive new constitution pushed through by President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist allies despite weeks of opposition protests.
Polling stations in half the country, including the biggest cities of Cairo and Alexandria, were tallying the results from Saturday’s voting.
The second round of the referendum is to be held next Saturday, after which the official result is to be given.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and main media outlets said that, based on very early unofficial figures, it appeared that the polling was trending towards 70 percent support for the draft charter.
But the opposition disputed that, saying its preliminary figures suggested that 66 percent of the voters had rejected the proposed constitution. It claimed the Muslim Brotherhood had sought to “rig” the vote.
If those contradictory positions are maintained, Egypt’s turmoil of the past three weeks over the draft constitution will not subside.
H/T Magic Martin.
Below, OT audition line up for the new Broadway play, ‘the Merry Penguins of allah’. Critics are predicting a bomb.
Morsi is friends with Obama, that means the ballots that will be counted were cast before the election.
I think this is what the entire Arab Spring has been about all along – the establishment of Sharia Law and Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, then the formation of a Caliphate with Egypt at its head. Remember, these are the buggers who murdered Anwar Sadat. They are going to win this and there is nothing the secularists can do about it. They would seem to be outnumbered and out-played. Talk about useful idiots…
There are two possible hitches in the Egyptian MB plans, Turkey wants to recreate the Turkish Empire and Iran wants to recreate the ancient Iranian Empire. These are the only bumps in the road of the MB creating a Graphite with Egypt at its head.