You are here: Home > Politics > Egypt > Current Article

Lawsuit questions legitimacy of the referendum

Rana Muhammad Taha / December 24, 2012 / 2 Comments / 237 Views

Al-Fakharany claims almost 70 per cent of eligible voters were deprived from taking part in the referendum

The first hearing for a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the referendum on the draft constitution was scheduled for Tuesday at the Tanta Administrative Court.

Lawyer Hamdy Al-Fakharany filed the suit a week ago calling for the postponing the announcement of the referendum results. Al-Fakharany claimed the referendum was void as it deprived almost 70 percent of eligible voters from casting their ballots.

“The problem lies within the formation of the polling stations,” Al-Fakharany said. He stated that due to the boycott of the referendum by a number of judges, the Supreme Electoral Committee (SEC) allocated a ballot box for at least 4,000 voters. The SEC also left the polling stations open for 15 hours; they opened at 8 am and closed at 11 pm. “If each voter spends one minute within the polling station, then only 900 would get the chance to vote.”

Inside the polling station, the voter first submitted their ID card to the judge. The station judge then located the voter’s name and recorded that they voted. The voter then picked up a ballot and marked their vote behind a curtain. After this, they returned to the judge to put their ballot in the box and reclaimed their ID card. Finally, their finger was marked with phosphoric ink as proof that they voted.

Al-Fakharany claimed that this formation was aimed at eliminating all voters likely to reject the referendum. He stated that those voting “Yes” arrived at the polling stations early morning and thus got the chance to vote before anybody else arrived.

“The timings also put restraints on many women,” Al-Fakharany said. He claimed that most women wouldn’t be comfortable with staying in the streets till 11 pm in order to cast their votes.

“In light of the shortage in judges willing to supervise the referendum, the SEC should have held it over a period of five rounds instead of just two,” Al-Fakharany said.

This is not the only lawsuit challenging the referendum. Former presidential candidate Khaled Ali filed a lawsuit last week demanding the constitutional referendum be halted. The final draft of the constitution was neither printed in the official gazette nor included in the ballots. Accordingly, the lawsuit argues, the public doesn’t know what they are voting on.

NEXT ARTICLE →
Al-Azhar responds to Borhami accusations

← PREVIOUS ARTICLE
Train crash injures six

About the author

Rana Muhammad Taha

View all articles by Rana Muhammad Taha »

Reda Sobky

Yes, a stolen election by the usual methods, how sad that the first supposedly real set of elections in Egypt would be corrupted in this manner. We only have the judiciary left to stand up to this illegality and we all hope the courage is there to rule on law and not on power. The situation will remain unsettled until this matter is resolved and now the that the new constitutional court has no legitimacy with five members hand picked who will do this?
Naem

People of Egypt This Destructive attitude from Enemy of Egypt will

continue and nothing will satisfy these criminals short of coup and

violent take over by these thugs.People of Egypt need to ask these morons

and foreign supported criminals that who is to blame for the low turn out

“OPPOSITION THAT’S WHO” .These criminals and their gang judges created

Hurdles to make referendum extremely difficult for hardworking Egyptians

whom would have voted in swarms happily.These criminal knew from the

beginning that they will be defeated by People.The shortage of these

traitor judges and terrorizing behavior from opposition thugs is the

cause for lower turn out .Hardworking people stood in lines for many

hours to vote and many of these people just could not afford to spent

their important time standing in lines.Absolute Full responsibility for

the low turn out falls on the shoulders of these opposition

criminals.They and their corrupt judges are to blame.How dare they try to

insinuate that people are not backing current govt? when they on purpose

created these problems and made referendum more difficult for citizens.
These traitors needs to be dealt with force now that the process of

legitimacy has been settled because no country in the world will allow

this kind of behavior for long from few hundred disgruntled self

centered, corrupt and violent criminals to take the whole country hostage

illegal.
If they choose to work with with the will of the people and accept the

decision by the people and try next term for their turn DEMOCRATICALLY

then welcome them other wise, for the sake of the people and country

throw their leaders out of the country or put them on trials for inciting

treason and violence and exiled them till the next elections.Opposition is taking

advantage of this generous and lenient government which has gone far and

beyond to accommodate their violent and destructive behavior for the sake of

democratic values long enough.Let them go to their foreign bosom buddies

throw them to the dogs and send them to firing squad if these criminals

don’t obey the law and work for the stability of the country. These

criminals will not settle for any thing short of destroying the country.