Voting begins on new constitution in Egypt

Egyptians are now casting their votes on a new constitution, which could pave the way for fresh elections.

13:26 14 January 2014

Amid tight security, Egyptians are now voting in a two-day referendum on a new constitution with the goal to replace the previous constitution passed under Islamist President Mohammed Morsi months before he was ousted by the army.

Meanwhile, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood strongly opposes the vote and there are fears of violence.  Because of this, security is being tightened as the government deployed 200,000 police officers, 150 removal security units, and 200 combat groups.

After the voting began, there was an explosion at one of the buildings in Cairo’s Imbaba district. No casualties were reported. However, one person was killed during an anti-referendum protest in Bani Suef, south of Cairo.

Meanwhile, a BBC correspondent said that there were hardly any posters from the NO campaign and people were allegedly arrested for putting them up.

One voter, Salah Mustafa, told the BBC: "Compared to the document that we had last year, which was a really horrible constitution, there's a lot of rights, there's a lot of concepts that we wanted to see from day one."

Under the new constitution the president may serve two four-year terms and can be impeached by parliament. Freedom of belief is absolute, although Islam will remain the state religion.