A woman casts her vote at a polling station during a referendum on Egypt’s new constitution in Cairo on January 14, 2014. (Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
Cairo, AP—Egypt’s election committee says 98.1 percent of voters have approved a new, military-backed constitution in the first vote since a coup toppled the country’s president.
Egypt’s High Election Commission said Saturday that 38.6 percent of the country’s more than 53 million eligible voters took part in the two-day poll.
Officials say 20.6 million voters cast ballots, with some 20.3 million votes counted after eliminating those voided.
This is the first vote since the military removed Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, following massive protests in July. Officials view the vote as key in legitimizing the country’s military-backed interim government and its plan for parliamentary and presidential elections.
But Mursi’s supporters and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group boycotted the vote and have alleged the results were forged. The Brotherhood has vowed to keep up their near-daily protests.