CAIRO — Egypt’s top election official declared Wednesday that turnout was high in a national referendum, but a boycott by a wider-than-expected range of ultra-conservative Islamists raised the prospects of continued polarization.
The majority of Egyptians who converged at the polls appeared to support the charter, which was likely to pass in voting Tuesday and Wednesday amid an intense media campaign in its favor and a tight security grip silencing its opponents. The interim government was seeking a high turnout as a mandate for its vision of the country’s future.
The constitution is a key piece of a political roadmap toward new elections for a president and a test of public opinion about the coup that removed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood from power last July. It is a heavily amended version of a constitution written by Morsi’s Islamist allies and ratified in December 2012 with about 64 percent of the vote but with a nationwide turnout of about 30 percent.
In its first test after siding with the military-backed government, the lone major ultraconservative voice in support of the new draft charter, the Al-Nour Salafi party, appeared unable to bring masses of its followers to the polls. Turnout was very low in Salafi strongholds, especially in small towns.
In many villages near Giza, home to the Pyramids west of Cairo, polling centers saw only a trickle of voters.
