Egypt approves direct election for presidency

Egyptian interior ministry yesterday announced that 82.9 per cent of voters had approved a constitutional change introducing direct and multi-candidate presidential election, but opposition dismissed the results as fake.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak won his four previous six-year terms after being approved by a legislature dominated by his ruling National Democratic Party and elected unopposed by popular referendum.

"This is a message to all those that thought they had a monopoly on the truth and a message for the world," he said, in a veiled message to the opposition.

"This is a farce. The (ruling) National Democratic Party resorted to the carrot-and-stick policy to amass government employees at polling stations in order to give the false impression that there were high turnout," said Hesham Qassem of the opposition liberal Party Al Ghad (Tomorrow).

"No-one can trust Egyptian referendums," he told Gulf News.

Authorities estimated earlier yesterday that turnout exceeded 70 per cent in many regions excluding Cairo however and 90 per cent of voters said "yes" to the proposed reform.

Women in rural areas were said to have voted en masse. The opposition also complained of intimidation by authorities.

They say that the constitutional amendment which will take effect in the September's presidential election severely restricts independent candidates and overwhelmingly favours Mubarak's ruling party.

Voting day turned violent when police used clubs to break up a group of opposition demonstrators in Cairo and cracked down on other rallies held across the country in protest at the reform, arresting a number of activists.

And an Egyptian journalist accused supporters of Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) of sexually harassing her, ripping her clothes and stealing her money and jewels in front of the journalists' union in downtown Cairo.

The umbrella pro-reform organisation Kefaya (Enough) charged that NDP activists had molested women colleagues and thrashed several marchers with police complicity.

The writer is an Arab journalist based in Cairo.