Voters in Badr City form 'longest' queue on referendum's 2nd day

CAIRO – 21 April 2019: A very long queue of citizens was seen before the polling station of El-Ferdaous Secondary School in Cairo's Badr City to vote on theproposed constitutional amendments.

It is reportedly the longest queue seen so far on the second day of the referendum.



Nationwide, TV channels showed queues of voters at some polling stations waiting before the doors were opened and they were allowed in to cast their ballots by either agree or disagree totheproposed constitutional amendments passed by the Parliament Tuesday.

Cairo has seen a relatively high turnout of voters so far, and so has the Giza governorate.

Also, residents of Alexandria, Minya, Qena, Menoufia, Matrouh and Beheira governoratesflocked on Saturday morningto polling stations to cast their votes in the referendum on constitutional amendments.

The approved amendments expand each of the two presidential terms allowed for any president to six years instead of four, while a separate transitional article gives an exceptional right to incumbent President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who was re-elected in 2018, to run for a third 6-year term after he finishes his second term in 2024 instead of 2022.

The amendments also give the president the right to choose heads of courts, judicial bodies, the Supreme Constitutional Court, and the Attorney General, Egypt's top prosecutor from some nominees. He would also appoint one third of the members of the Shura Council, which was revived, this time under the name "The Senate."