Egypt constitution passed with 63.8% support: official

CAIRO   (AFP) – Egypt’s constitution was passed with 63.8 percent voter support in the two-stage referendum that ended last weekend, the national electoral commission said on Tuesday.

Turnout was 32.9 percent of Egypt’s total 52 million voters, the president of the commission, Samir Abul Maati, told a news conference in Cairo.

The figures confirmed those given by President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which had backed the new charter.

Abul Maati rejected opposition claims that fake judges supervised some of the polling — one of several allegations of polling fraud the opposition National Salvation Front made after each leg of the referendum held December 15 and 22.

The charter, and Morsi’s determination to hold the referendum without building consensus, provoked weeks of protests, some of which turned violent.

The Front has said it will not cease its struggle, raising the prospect of prolonged instability in the Arab world’s most populous nation.