Preliminary results of last Saturday’s referendum held in ten governorates indicate that approximately 56 percent of Egyptians approve of the contentious Islamist-weighted draft constitution. The vote was hurriedly pushed through by President Mohammad Mursi amid an outcry from moderates and secularists who said the draft threatened freedoms hard-won during the January 25 revolution.
The poll was staggered due to a scarcity of judges willing to monitor the ballot. Next Saturday’s vote will reveal all, but as Phase II will be held in mainly rural areas, it will likely consolidate the government’s advantage. Democracy in action: The people have spoken. The majority rules, right? In principle, that is how it should be. However, the angry millions are not about to disperse quietly.
The inescapable truth is that democracy may be fatally flawed in a nation that has never tasted it, where 28 percent of the population is illiterate and a quarter exists on less than $2 (Dh7.35) a day. Those are the people who have been wooed by the Muslim Brotherhood for decades with cash handouts, food parcels and medicines in return for their loyalty. When they are ordered to board buses and vote any which way, they do as they are told. Similarly, Islamists are ideologically predisposed to backing a president drawn from the Muslim Brotherhood. They were not alarmed by his anti-democratic power grab (since rescinded) that afforded him more power than any of his predecessors because personal freedom is not big on their agenda.
Egyptian Salafists, who adhere to a strict interpretation of Islam, have conflated politics and religion to the extent followers are calling for jihad against liberals, falsely characterised by their imams as Mubarak remnants or infidels, even though anti-Mursi demonstrators, including the April 6 youth movement, students, academics, professionals and businessmen, were at the vanguard of the revolution.
Along with Islamist extremists, Salafists screaming threats prevented judges from entering the Supreme Court earlier this month. Last week, a multitude of Salafists, accusing privately-owned television stations of being anti-Mursi, was camped outside Cairo’s Media City threatening to attack it. I spoke to one from the crowd, Yusri, who said he was a carpenter from Alexandria. I asked him why he was there? He said the TV should be broadcasting religion, not filth. He vowed to stay for the duration and bid a last goodbye to his wife and son just in case. I asked him who would look after them if anything happened to him. “Allah will provide,” he said.
Last Friday, a Salafist preacher in Alexandria defied a government edict that politics should be kept out of the mosques by urging worshippers to vote “yes” to the constitution. Violent clashes ensued. Cars were set alight and 19 were injured. Now, the shaikh has patted himself on the back during a press conference for preventing further bloodshed. “My sons gave me a call and said that they were on their way to save me with automatic weapons, but I told them to wait for my instructions.” Last Saturday, while the voting was on, the headquarters of the Wafd Party in Cairo was torched by supporters of the Salafist politician Hazem Salah Abu Esmail.
That is not to say the anti-Mursi camp is angelic. Numerous Muslim Brotherhood offices around the country have been set on fire or ransacked and at least six Ikhwan supporters have been killed. They accuse the president of being a puppet of the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, even though he resigned from the organisation’s Freedom and Justice Party. They contend he broke his pledge to be a leader for all Egyptians when he expanded his powers and ignored calls to postpone a referendum that has ravaged the country at its core.
In reality, last Saturday’s referendum had little to do with the constitution’s text. Journalists reporting from polling stations discovered that very few had read its 236 articles couched in legalese, let alone understood it. I was surprised when one of my friends, a university lecturer, confided that she had trouble wading through the convoluted language and gave up half way.
Among the “yes” voters are unaffiliated Egyptians sick of street violence, people who concluded that saying “yes” might permit the country to move forward. They are sadly mistaken. The opposition is already crying foul. More than 1,400 cases have been filed against “fake judges.” The Judges Club has received hundreds of complaints of irregularities, including polling centres where judges failed to turn up and individuals influencing voters lined up outside.
Those opposing the constitution have been badly served by the judges who boycotted the referendum, leaving those sympathetic to the Brotherhood to do the job, as well as opposition parties making up the National Salvation Front which were prepared to boycott the vote until they changed their minds last Wednesday, allowing just two days to get their message out. It is time the opposition gets its act together. It needs to come up with a single respected, charismatic leader untainted by connections with the Mubarak regime, someone with a solid manifesto who can successfully take on Mursi four years from now. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but they should accept that they have lost the battle, but not necessarily the war. One thing is certain—if the fight over competing visions of tomorrow continues on the streets, every Egyptian will be a loser.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
