Egyptian authorities are to announce on Saturday the results of a constitutional referendum that the interim government has hailed as a ringing endorsement of the army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
Initial tallies suggest the referendum held on Tuesday and Wednesday passed with an overwhelming majority, in what the military-installed government said was a strong stamp of approval for the overthrow of Egypt’s first freely elected president.
But Morsi’s Islamist supporters, harried by a deadly crackdown since his removal in July, vowed more protests and faced off with police on Friday in clashes that killed three people.
Flagship state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram said the turnout for the referendum was more than 40 percent of the country’s 53 million registered voters, with the “overwhelming majority” voting yes.
It had earlier reported that 98 percent voted in support of the charter, an expected result after Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement and its Islamist allies boycotted the vote.
