Egypt 'Yes' to Islamist constitution; opposition cries fraud

The second round of referendum vote appeared to have tilted the scale in favour of the constitution drawn by an Islamist-dominated parliament, with a preliminary tally of the vote showing 64 per cent 'yes' votes as against 36 per cent against it, according to the state media.

Though the official result of the referendum is not expected until tomorrow, the Muslim Brotherhood led by President Mohamed Mursi claimed that over 71 per cent of the voters cast a "Yes" ballot for the charter yesterday in second and final round of voting after a narrower 56.5 per cent 'yes' vote in the first round last week.

"According to our calculations, the final result of the second round is 71 per cent voting 'Yes' and the overall result (of the two rounds) is 63.8 per cent," said an official of the Brotherhood's political wing Freedom and Justice Party.

The opposition that had raised allegations of widespread irregularities after the first round of vote on December 15, again charged that the vote was won by fraud.

The National Salvation Front (NSF), a coalition of Egypt's mostly secular opposition that has been pitted against the Islamists, pledged to appeal the result.

"We're going to challenge this in the courts, we're going to challenge this in the streets, we're going to challenge this until we die, because we cannot recognise this wide attempt to steal the people's future," Ahmed Hawary, a spokesperson for the NSF, was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

In a statement, the NSF said it would file documentation related to the fraud allegations with the country's electoral commission before the announcement of final results. (MORE)