Second day of voting for new Egyptian constitution. Yesterday, 9 dead
Cairo ( AsiaNews)
- Egyptians are voting for a second day on the referendum on the new
constitution drafted after the fall of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi . The
military and the interim executive are urging people to vote, the Muslim
Brotherhood, now branded as a terrorist organization, is calling for a boycott
and the return of Morsi .
According
to the Al Hayat television, reporting
statistics from the Minister of Justice , "over 50% " already voted on
the first day. Instead a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Soudan,
claims the majority of people are not going to vote .
The
state media are all aligned in praising the "democratic celebration" of
the vote. But they are not alone with several
common voters, interviewed by the media, pointing out that the new constitution,
despite some flaws , is " better than Morsi's" , which only 36% of
the population voted on last year.
The
first day of voting began with relative calm. However, a bomb later exploded in
the district of Giza, without claiming any victims. As
a result , Morsi supporters clashed with police in several areas of the country:
in Upper Egypt, Sohag , four people were killed in a shootout, four more died
in clashes in Giza , one in the
governorate of Beni Suef . The
Health Minister also announced that three voters died of natural causes.
Several
observers think that the turnout will be high because with the new constitution
, the population wants to punish the Muslim Brotherhood for having introduced
Islamic fundamentalist laws and for bringing the country to the brink of
economic crisis.