Egypt’s election committee says 98.1 percent of voters have approved a new, military-backed constitution in the first vote since a coup toppled the country’s president.
The High Election Commission said on Saturday that 38.6 percent of the country’s more than 53 million eligible voters took part in the two-day poll. That’s 20.5 million voters casting ballots.
This is the first vote since the military removed Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, following massive protests in July. Officials view the vote as key in legitimising the country’s military-acked interim government and its plan for parliamentary and presidential elections.
But Mr. Morsi’s supporters and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group boycotted the vote and have alleged the results were forged. The Brotherhood has vowed to keep up their near-daily protests. Activists and monitoring groups have raised serious concerns over the atmosphere in which voting took place
