By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East

Cairo, Egypt – Egyptian State media has reported that after the second day of voting polls across Egypt have officially closed after the second day of voting on a draft Constitution drafted after the overthrow of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. If the vote leads the adoption of the new constipation the next step in the road map to democratization set up by the military backed government will be Parliamentary and presidential elections, expected sometime this year.

About 200,000 security forces and 160,000 military personnel were deployed across the country to stifle any interruption of the voting process across the country. Demonstrators rallied in several cities including the capital Cairo, Al-Sharqiyah, Fayoum and Delga. Shadi Hamid; research director at Brookings Doha Centre said “Any sense of stability is an illusion. That’s what people think General Sisi might offer.” He added that “if we look at the last six months, Egypt has seen one of the worst spills of violence in its modern history.”

While Tuesday’s voting took place in relative peace on Wednesday at least 11 people were killed on Tuesday, the first day of voting across the country. Egyptian police arrested dozens of supporters of President Morsi protesting the referendum, believing the vote is an attempt to grant legitimacy to a coup against a democratically elected government.

Following the Egyptian states crackdown on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the interim government, and other Morsi supporters the new constipation was expected to pass easily, though official results have yet to be reported.

Egyptian Newspapers, the majority of which are supporters of the military government, claimed that there was a “heavy” turnout on Tuesday and that the cote symbolized a “defeat” of the Morsi regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood called for a boycott of the vote. The organization accused the pro-military government media in Egypt of falsifying its reports about the turnout. In a statement from the Brotherhood-led Anti-Coup and Pro-Democracy Alliance the organization said “They are trying to cover-up their early defeat, “they claimed that only 15% of eligible to vote in Southern Egypt turned up to vote. Potential monitors suspected of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood were not granted permission to oversee the vote.

The last constitution referendum was held in December 2012 while Morsi was still in power. However, this constitution was suspended after the military coup that removed Morsi from power in July 2013.

Some claim that the draft constitution proposed in this referendum vote would improve human rights and freedom of expression, stating explicitly that men and women are equal and have the right to hold public office and judicial posts. However, critics of the draft constitution claim the document grants too much power to the military without civilian oversight, which many fear could lead to a return to the pro-military statuesque that existed under President Mubarak and his “state of emergency,” a government that lead to the 2011 uprisings across the country.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Egypt Referendum Polls Close – 15 January 2014

CNN International – Egypt Votes on New Constitution, Tests Legitimacy of Military-Backed Government – 15 January 2014

CNN International – Violence Erupts as Egyptians Vote on New Constitution – 14 January 2014

Al Jazeera – Comparing Egypt’s 2012 and 2013 Constitutions – 14 January 2014