Egypt's polling stations close doors on 1st day of referendum

CAIRO - 20 April 2019: Egyptian polling stations closed doors at 9:00 pm on the first day of the referendum on constitutional amendments which would last till Monday in Egypt and Sunday abroad.

A total of 61 million eligible voters were called for casting their ballots in the public referendum on the constitutional amendments.

On Saturday, a number of consulates have also opened their doors to continue the three-day referendum process abroad, which kicked off on Friday. The first embassies to open was in New Zealand and Australia.

Egyptian nationals in China have also started flocking to the Egyptian embassy in Beijing for the second day of the referendum. The first day of voting has reportedly seen many Egyptians at the polling stations abroad.

Egyptian expatriates started three-day voting on the new constitutional amendments in 140 embassies and consulates of 125 countries worldwide, amid massive campaigning for the amendments abroad and domestically.

“The referendum on constitutional amendments will be completely supervised by the judiciary,” said Judge Lasheen Ibrahim, head of the National Election Authority, at a press conference held at the headquarters of the State Information Service in Cairo’s Nasser City district. “There will be a judge at every ballot box. The media and civil society will be able to follow the process.