CAIRO: Egyptians voted 77 percent in favor of the military's plans for a swift return to civilian rule after mass protests ousted president Hosni Mubarak last month, official results showed Sunday. More than 14 million Egyptians, or 77.2 percent of those who voted, approved the constitutional amendments intended to guide the Arab world's most populous nation through new presidential and parliamentary elections within six months, organizing commission chairman Mohammed Attiya said. Four million, or 22.8 percent, said “no,” Attiya told a news conference. A total of 41 percent or 18.5 million of the estimated 45 million eligible voters turned out Saturday to seize their first taste of democracy, after 18 days of demonstrations ended Mubarak's 30 years of authoritarian rule, he added. The changes approved are by themselves uncontroversial, although critics argued they did not go far enough in overhauling the Mubarak-era charter, which they said needed to be completely rewritten. The president will serve a maximum of two four-year terms and will no longer have the power to refer civilians to the military courts. The state of emergency which has governed Egyptian life for decades will be able to be imposed for just six months without endorsement in a popular referendum. The youth groups which spearheaded the protest movement joined a host of secular political parties and opposition figures in calling for a “no” vote, saying the timetable being set by the military was too tight for new movements to organize at grass-roots level. The military council, which took over when Mubarak quit on Feb. 11, gave an appointed panel of experts just 10 days to draw up the amendments put to Saturday's referendum, which was held only five weeks after Mubarak's ouster. The activists' umbrella group, the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, had organized a rally for a “no” vote on the eve of the referendum, which brought thousands of people back to Cairo's Tahrir Square, focal point of the protests against Mubarak. But the activists were gracious in defeat, calling on their Facebook page for supporters to accept the verdict. The Muslim Brotherhood hailed the outcome but rejected accusations that it was the victor of the vote as it would enter elections as Egypt's most effective political force. Coptic leaders had called for a “no” vote after not a single representative of the community was named to the panel of experts appointed by the military. Confessional violence also killed 13 people in south Cairo earlier this month.
