Early polling results show Egyptian voters have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution in a referendum, state officials and a news agency said on Thursday.
The result are highly likely to set the for army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president.
About 90 percent of voters approved the constitution. But the referendum outcome has come as no surprise as Egyptian had strongly backed army for the ousting of President Mohamed Mursi last July.
State news agency MENA, citing early indications, said the approval rate exceeded 90 percent in many of the polling stations that had reported results.
“The approval of the constitution is perhaps more than 95 percent,” Major General Abdel Fattah Othman, director of public relations for the Interior Ministry, told a private satellite channel in Egypt.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, had called for a boycott of the two-day vote, terming it as part of a coup against a leader freely elected 18 months ago. It had called for anti-government protests.
On day-one of the referendum on Tuesday, nine people were killed in clashes between police and Mursi supporters. Protests continued into Wednesday with clashes near the presidential palace but there were no reports of deaths.
According to interior ministry sources, 444 people were arrested during the two days of voting.
