January 08 2014, 14:36
- Egypt will hold a referendum on its amended 2012 constitution over two days on 14 and 15 January, 2014.
- Voters will be asked if they approve of the draft constitution – complete with all the changes that have been made in the last year.
- A committee of ten legal experts began to amend the constitution in 2013. You can read a guide to the changes they made to the draft here
- The second phase began with a review by a 50-person committee since September 2013.
- The final draft included a ban on parties based on religion.
- The last time a referendum was held was in 2012, where 32.9% of the electorate voted and the constitution was approved with 63.8% of the vote in favour.
- The size of the electorate in 2012 was under 51 million, just smaller than the electoral population in the Philippines 2013 midterm elections – around 53 million.
- Due to the late release of regulations for the accreditation of witnesses, important observation missions, such as the Carter Centre, were unable to observe the 2012 referendum
- The 2014 referendum is to be observed by Tamarod, an Egyptian grassroots movement, and the European Union. The EU delegation has already been granted access to a list of voters
- Interim President Adly Mansour expects to hold Presidential elections within six months of the referendum.
