Egyptian new draft constitution approved in vote (3)

（Xinhua）  10:58, December 26, 2012

CAIRO, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Head of Egyptian Supreme Elections Commission, Samir Ahmed Aboul-Maaty, announced Tuesday evening that the newly-written draft constitution was approved by 63.8 percent of votes in referendum.

Aboul-Maaty said during a press conference that the total turnout was 32.9 percent, as 17 million out of about 52 million eligible voters took part in the referendum, adding that there were about 16.755 million valid votes and over 303,000 invalid ones.

Some 10,694,000 voters said "Yes" to the draft constitution, representing 63.8 percent, while 6,061,000 voted against it, or 36. 2 percent.

Aboul-Maaty explained that the referendum was fulfilled under complete judicial supervision, stressing that the commission examined all complaints and fraud claims presented by monitoring organizations and the opposition, including the National Council for Human Rights and the opposition bloc named "National Salvation Front."

He added that raising suspicion about the integrity and transparence of the referendum in terms of judicial supervision was "an insult to the judicial authorities."

On Saturday, voters in 17 governorates, including Giza, Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, cast their votes Saturday in the second stage of the constitutional referendum, while the first stage held last week covered Cairo, Alexandria and eight other governorates, according to a republican decree issued by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Dec. 12.

The previous initial results showed about 63.5 percent of voters approved of the disputed constitution.

Late in November, 85 members of the beleaguered Constituent Assembly approved the draft constitution after a 17-hour marathon vote. Morsi then called on Egyptians to cast their votes in the referendum.

Most liberals, leftists and Copts consider the draft written by the Islamist-dominated assembly does not represent all Egyptians, especially after major representatives of the civil camp withdrew from the assembly due to unbridgeable division with the Islamic side on some of the articles.

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