An Islamist-backed Egyptian constitution has won approval in a referendum, rival camps have declared, after a vote the opposition said would sow deep social divisions.
The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power in a June election, said an unofficial tally showed 64% of voters backed the charter after two rounds of voting that ended with a final ballot on Saturday.
An opposition official also said their count showed the result was a "yes" vote, while party spokesmen said there had been a series of abuses during the voting.
The main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, responded to the defeat by saying it was moving towards forming a single political party to challenge the Islamists who have dominated since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown two years ago.
Members of the opposition, taking heart from a low turnout of about 30% of voters, pledged to keep up pressure on Mr Mursi through peaceful protests and other democratic means.
"The referendum is not the end of the road," said Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front. "It is only the beginning of a long struggle for Egypt's future."
The referendum committee may not declare official results for the two rounds until today, after hearing appeals. If the outcome is confirmed, a parliamentary election will follow in about two months.
Mr Mursi's Islamist backers say the constitution is vital for the transition to democracy, nearly two years after Mr Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising, and that it will provide the stability needed to help a fragile economy.
The constitution is "a historic opportunity to unite all national powers on the basis of mutual respect and honest dialogue for the sake of stabilising the nation", the Brotherhood said in a statement.
The opposition accuses Mr Mursi of pushing through a text that favours Islamists and ignores the rights of Christians, who make up about 10% of the population, as well as women. They say it is a recipe for further unrest.
"The majority is not big and the minority is not small," liberal politician Amr Hamzawy said, adding that the National Salvation Front would use "all peaceful, democratic means" to challenge the constitution.
The vote was split over two days as many judges had refused to supervise the ballot, making a single day of voting impossible.
During the build-up to the vote there were deadly protests, sparked by Mr Mursi's decision to award himself extra powers in a November decree and then fast-track the constitutional vote.
The new basic law sets a limit of two four-year presidential terms. It says the principles of sharia, Islamic law, remain the main source of legislation but adds an article to explain this. It also says Islamic authorities will be consulted on sharia – a source of concern to Christians and others.
Rights groups reported what they said were illegalities in the vote. They said some polling stations opened late, that Islamists illegally campaigned at some polling places, and there were voter registration irregularities.
But the committee overseeing the vote said it detected no major irregularities in voting on December 15, which covered about half of Egypt's 51 million voters. About 25 million were eligible to vote in the second round.
Leader comment: Page 14
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article