Referendum On Egypt’s Constitution To Take Place Over Two Days

An electoral official announced on Monday that the upcoming constitutional referendum would take place over two consecutive days, but said the dates had not yet been fixed.

Judge Hisham Mokhtar, the official spokesperson for the High Elections Committee, said on Monday that the polls would be open for two days between 9am and 9pm.

“The dates for the referendum are not decided except through the president and the issuing of a decree to invite voters,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi said at an economic conference that the constitutional referendum could be held in the second half of January 2014.

Mokhtar also announced that 67 local NGOs and six international NGOs had been approved to monitor the upcoming constitution referendum.

“The committee does not care about the names or the identity or the political affiliation of the NGOs monitoring the upcoming constitution referendum, as long as those NGOs comply with the standards issued by the committee,” he said.

“However, some NGOs could be excluded from monitoring the referendum if there is a court ruling to suspend the activity of those NGOs in Egypt,” he added.

Source : Ahram