Egypt

Update: Initial results could amount to 64 percent of voters endorsing the constitution

Polling stations have officially closed, amid continuing reports of polling stations around the country closing as early as 9:00 pm. Results from polling stations that closed began to trickle. Egypt Independent provides live updates of the vote counting as it unfolds. 

4:00 am: More indicators show that the constitution was endorsed in Fayoum with 89 percent (458,802 voters) saying "yes" and 11 percent (75,431 voters) saying "no". In  the New Valley, 88.4 percent (40687 voters) said "yes" and 11.6 percent (5939 voters) said "no". In Bani Suef, 85.1 percent (463,822 voters) said "yes" and 14.9 percent (81,842) said "no". In Qena, 84.8 percent (307,161 voters) said "yes" and 15.2 percent (55,168 voters) said "no". In Suez, 71.1 percent (105,461 voters) endorsed the constitution and 28.9 percent (42,934 voters) rejected it. In Damietta, 64.4 percent (205,474 voters) said "yes" and 35.5 percent (113.480 voters) said "no". In Qalyubiya the constitution was endorsed by 60 percent with 524,332 votes while 40 percent (351,988 votes) said "no". Monufiya hardly endorsed the constitution with 48.8 percent (356,746 voters) saying "yes" and 51.2 percent (383,190 voters) saying "no".

3:30 am: Two thirds of voters of the second phase of the referendum endorsed the constitution so far, as shown by most indicators. After vote counting concluded in more than 90 percent of the country's 6724 polling stations, 5,749,743 voters have endorsed the draft constitution (71 percent) and 2,343,247 voters rejected it (29 percent). With the addition of the first phase of the referendum's results, the final figures could amount to 64 percent of voters endorsing the constitution.

In the latest results, Matrouh, home to 212,495 voters, has endorsed the constitution with 91,7 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, more than three quarters of the voters in Beheira, a stronghold of 3,276,930 voters, endorsed the constitution with 819,017 voters saying "yes" (75,5 percent) while 266,144 said "no" (24.5 percent). Minya, home to 2,718,947 voters, endorsed the constitution as well with 763,729 of the votes (83. 2 percent), while 154,305 voters said "no" (16,8 percent). Luxor , home to 685,009 voters, endorsed the draft constitution with 76.7 percent (133,764 voters), while 23.3 percent (40,707 voters) said "no". Ismailiya, home to 713,963 voters, endorsed the constitution with 179,620 voters saying "yes" (70 percent) while 76,905 voters said "no" (30 percent). In Kafr al-Sheikh, home to 1,886,212 voters, 66 percent (358,433 voters) said "yes" while 34 percent (184,692 voters) said "no". The Red Sea, home to 232,388 voters, accepted the constitution with 62.6 percent of the vote, amounting for 44, 137 voters, while while 37.4 percent of votes, amounting for 26,316 voters, said "no". In Port Said, home to 445,322 voters, supporters of the constitution won with a small margin where 51 percent (85,353 voters) said "yes" while 49 percent (81,578 voters) said "no". The important constituency of Giza  which is home for some 4,383,701 voters, constituting 17.2 percent of the total votes in the second phase, 66.3 percent (983,403 voters) said "yes" so far, while 33.7 percent (499,199 voters) said "no".

3:00 am: Most indicators show that out of the 6724 polling stations, the vote counting has concluded in 5026 stations, with 4,198,436 voting yes (72 percent) and 1,594,615 voting "no" (28 percent).

2:00 am: Monufiya emerges as the only governorate in the second phase of the constitutional referendum to reject the constitution with 50.5 percent of the voters saying "no" while 49.5 percent said "yes". Other final results showed that Fayoum is leading the "yes" votes with 89 percent, followed by the New Valley, which endorsed the constitution with 87.2 percent of the votes. Eighty-five percent of the voters in Bani Suef said "yes" to the constitution. In Suez, 71 percent of the voters said "yes" and in Ismailia, 70 percent of the voters said "yes".

1:30 am: Voters in Matrouh, Fayoum and New Valley endorsed the constitution with more than a 90 percent majority, according to initial counts. Meanwhile, Monufiya and Kafr al-Sheikh are still bouncing between "yes" and "no" voters.

Freedom and Justice Party indicators show that after the counting concluded in 3483 out of 6724 polling stations, 2,993,562 voters said "yes" (74.3 percent), while 1,035,703 voters said "no" (25.7 percent).

Matrouh is leading governorates endorsing the constitution with 95.2 percent voting "yes" (42,284 voters), while only 4.8 percent voted "no" (2137 voters). Fayoum came second with 93.4 percent voting "yes", while 6,6 percent voted "no". New Valley came third with 92.8 percent of the voters saying "yes".

Other governorates such as Minya and Luxor endorsed the constitution with more than 80 percent of the votes. 88.3 percent of the voters in Minya said "yes", and 85.7 percent of the voters in Luxor opted for the same choice.

Monufiya and Qalyubiya are the only two governorates so far where the "no" vote is posing a challenge to the "yes" vote. A small margin separates "yes" and "no" voters in Monufiya, where 280,153 rejected the constitution (49.2 percent), while 289,303 voters endorsed it (50.8 percent). In Qalyubiya, the "no" vote reached 41 percent so far with 52,054 voters, while 59 percent (74,844 voters) said "yes".

1:00 am: The Facebook page of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said that after counting 2865 polling stations out of 6724 around the country, there are 2,320,231 voters who said "yes" (82.2 percent) while 449,209 voters said "no" (17.8 percent).

The FJP said that preliminary results in Qena show that 78 percent voted "yes" while 22 percent voted "no". In Giza, 77.7 percent voted yes while, 22.3 percent voted "no". In Qalyubiya, 65 percent voted "yes" while 35 percent voted no.

12:00 pm: 250,000 votes have been counted so far, indicating the initial endorsement of the constitutional draft by all 17 govenorates where the polling took place on Saturday. The "yes' votes in certain governorates such as Matrouh have reached 100 percent, as far as initial counting indicates. Meanwhile, in five of the 17 governorates, the "yes" votes were over 80 percent of the vote count.

Initial counting shows the following:

Matrouh is leading all the governorates with the "yes" vote with 13,287 voters endorsing the constitution (94.4 percent) while only 794 voters  rejecting it (5.6 percent).

In Minya, so far 11,315 voters said "yes" (82.4 percent) while 2417 voters (17.6 percent) said "no". In Ismailia, 3566 voted "yes" (82.2 percent) and 771 voted "no" (17.8 percent). In Luxor, 5444  voted "yes" (87.6 percent) and 772 voted "no" (12.4 percent). In Giza, 16,469 voted "yes" (81.7 percent) and 3687 voted "no" (18.3 percent). In Fayoum, 12,470 voted "yes" ( 86.8 percent) and 1899 voted "no" (13.2 percent).

In Beheira, 13,902 voted "yes" (75.3 percent) and 4562 voted "no" ( 24.7 percent). In Suez, 3173 voted "yes" (78.8 percent) and 852 voted "no" (21.2 percent). In the Red Sea, 5755 voted "yes" ( 66.6 percent) and 2884 voted "no" (33.4 percent).  In Qalyubiya, 9109 voted "yes" (53.9 percent) and 7782 vpted "no" (44.1 percent). In Monufiya, 11,991 voted "yes" (50.4 percent) while 11,806 voters said "no" (49.6 percent).

In Minya, while over 80 percent said "yes" so far, the results in certain polling stations showed discrepencies from the final count. For example, the polling station of Welad al-Sheikh in Maghagha,1165 voters said "yes" while only 62 voters said "no". Meanwhile, in the polling station of Deir Abu Henas in Malawy, 1160 people voted "no" while only 34 voted "yes".

11: 30 pm: Of the 25,495,237 registered voters for the second phase of the referendum, 20,000 voters' ballots have already been counted in five governorates: Qalyubiya, Monufiya, Kafr al-Sheikh, Qena and Luxor. Of this sample, 17,397 voted "yes" and 3394 voted "no", hence giving an initial percentage of 83.6 percent for the "yes" vote and 16.3 percent for the "no" vote. Initial counting shows a big gap between yes and no voters in most governorates, whereas where the "yes" vote won, it won with a small margin. Of those votes, Qena led with a "yes" vote and Monufiya led with a "no" vote. In Qena, 13,539 people voted "yes" and 2034 voted "no", the percentage being 86.9 percent vs 13.1 percent. In Kafr al-Sheikh, 1525 said "yes" and 904 said "no". Next in the list of initially endorsing governorates is Luxor with 662 voting "yes" and 290 voting "no". In Qalyubiya, 988 voted "yes" and 674 voted "no". Finally Monufiya so far rejected the constitution with 906 voters saying "no" next to 673 voters saying "yes" with the percentage of 57.4 percent vs 42.6 percent. 

11:00 pm: Youssef Ragab, a journalist in Qena, told Egypt Independent that at least 15 polling stations were closed there before 9:30 pm. In northern Qena, two polling stations in Nagaa Hammadi reported their results. In the village of Hamra Doum, 230 voters said “yes” and 19 said “no,” while in Abu Hozam 238 said “yes” and 28 voted “no.”

The operation room of the National Salvation Front said that the first polling station in Luxor had announced its results, with 487 voters saying “yes” while 240 voters said “no.”

The Delta city of Qalyubiya also reported its first results from Shibin al-Qanater, where 132 voters said “no” and 112 said “yes.” Two other polling stations in Qalyubiya also announced results at 10:00 pm. The al-Qasheesh polling station in Shibin al-Kanater reported that 236 voters approved the constitution and 108 rejected it, while in Tookh 640 voters approved and 434 rejected the constitution.

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