CAIRO - 20 April 2019: The 1st day of the constitutional referendum started off in Egypt, where the people get to vote and express their opinions regarding the constitutional amendments approved by the Parliament. Polling stations across governorates have opened their doors at 9 a.m., and will close at 9 p.m. for three consecutive days.
Queues of voters are seen at some polling stations waiting to be allowed in to cast their ballot by either agree or disagree on a set of proposed constitutional amendments passed by the parliament Tuesday.
The amendments were discussed at a number of societal dialogues over the past weeks attended by various segments and experts in the country, and later on it was presented in front of the House of Representatives, where parliamentarians voted for passing them.
61 million eligible voters are supposed to cast their ballots in the public referendum on the constitutional amendments.
On Saturday, a number of consulates have also opened their doors to continue the three-day referendum process abroad, which kicked off on Friday. The first embassies to open was in New Zealand and Australia.
Egyptian nationals in China have also started flocking to the Egyptian embassy in Beijing for the second day of referendum. The first day of voting has reportedly seen many Egyptians at the polling stations abroad.
Egyptian expatriates started a three-day voting on the new constitutional amendments in 140 embassies and consulates of 125 countries worldwide, amid massive campaigning for the amendments abroad and domestically.
“The referendum on constitutional amendments will be completely supervised by the judiciary,” said Judge Lasheen Ibrahim, head of the National Election Authority, at a press conference held at the headquarters of the State Information Service in Cairo’s Nasser City district. “There will be a judge at every ballot box. The media and civil society will be able to follow the process.”
Sat, Apr. 20, 2019
