Post-Mubarak Egypt: El Baradei hackled at vote for constitutional reform

Egyptians flocked to the polls for the first time since Mubarak's removal.

CAIRO:

Egyptians flocked to the polls on Saturday for the first time since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled to vote in a referendum on political reform marred by an attack on presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei.

Youths pushed and hurled missiles at the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog as he tried to vote in the constitutional referendum which will determine how quickly Egypt can hold elections.

“We don’t want you, we don’t want you,” chanted the crowd of about 60, many of them teenagers.

“I went to vote with my family and I was attacked by organised thugs,” ElBaradei wrote on Twitter. “Top figures of Mubarak’s regime are still at large and undermining the revolution,” he said.

Rocks thrown at ElBaradei’s car smashed its rear window as he fled the crowd, a witness said. He was unable to vote at the Cairo polling station and went elsewhere to cast his ballot.

Observers said there appeared to have been an unprecedented turnout for the first Egyptian ballot in living memory whose outcome was not known in advance.

“I’m 53 and I have never voted before because they were all rigged,” said Ahmed al-Hami, one of close to 100 people waiting in line to vote at a polling station in a suburb south of Cairo. “Now I am voting for freedom,” he said.

Voters were being asked to approve or reject proposed reforms drafted by a judicial committee appointed by the country’s military rulers, who have pledged to hold early elections.

The referendum has divided Egyptians between those who say the constitution needs to be completely rewritten and others who argue amendments will suffice for now.

“Judging from what I saw in many stations, the turnout will range between 60 and 70 per cent which is unprecedented,” Gamal Eid, a monitor, said. “We have not seen any forgery today. What we saw was a true will to make the voting process fair.”

The Muslim Brotherhood has backed the amendments, setting it at odds with secular groups and reform advocates including ElBaradei and Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who is also a presidential candidate.

Constitutional reform is a milestone on the path sketched by the military towards legislative and presidential elections that will allow it to hand power to a civilian, elected government.

The result is expected to be announced on Sunday evening or Monday morning, said a member of a committee involved in overseeing the election.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2011.