Egypt adopts Islamist-backed charter

EGYPT: Egypt has adopted a new, Islamist-backed constitution with nearly two-thirds support in a referendum preceded by weeks of sometimes bloody protests, official media said on Sunday.

The secular-leaning opposition, which has alleged fraud, was mulling its next move in its campaign against the text, which it says limits the freedoms of religious minorities and women. It was to hold a news conference later Sunday.

Official results are due on Monday after the second and final round of voting on Saturday.

Unofficial tallies given by President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and state media said 64 percent of those who voted backed the constitution. “The Egyptian people continue their march towards finalising the construction of a democratic modern state, after turning the page on oppression,” the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, said in a statement.

Approval of the constitution would trigger parliamentary elections in two months’ time to replace an Islamist-dominated assembly that was dissolved by Egypt’s constitutional court before Morsi’s election in June.

In the interim, all legislative business will be handled by the senate, also under the sway of Islamists. On Saturday, Morsi appointed 90 additional senators, including eight women and 12 Christians, to further “national dialogue,” his spokesman said.

The main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, said it had observed fraud over both rounds of voting.

The Front had tried to scupper the poll with mass rallies before switching its focus to a last-minute campaign to vote down the charter.

The text was drafted by a panel dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-orthodox Salafist groups. Christians and liberals boycotted the process in protest at changes they saw as weakening human rights, especially those of women.

AFP