Egypt: The Constitutional Amendments  · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage for Egypt Protests 2011.
About one month after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians went to vote on constitutional amendments, on Saturday, March 19. The referendum is on a group of articles in the constitution that discuss the Presidency and Parliamentary elections and the requirements for candidates.
Shady Shahin and his friends showing their pink fingers as proof that they voted
The Egyptian blogger, Raafatology, wrote here about the first referendum his generation has witnessed without knowing its results in advance:
During the week or two that preceded the referendum, there were huge debates all over Egypt as to whether those amendments should be accepted or not. Some people found some of the amended articles confusing [Ar], while others refused them. Some people wanted to vote “yes” despite their disagreement with all of the articles,as this would help in speeding up the election process so that parliamentary contests can be held before September, followed soon after by a presidential race.  The result would be to reach a political and economical stability state as soon as possible. While some others believed this is the best chance to write a new constitution from scratch, and had some fears that an early parliamentary elections might also end up with a parliament consisting only from the two only ready political forces in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak's National Democratic Party. Some decided to vote with the amendments because they had reasonable fears that any delays might result in the Army jumping on the wagon and stay in charge forever.
Alaa Abdel Fattah wrote here about the division that took place within the revolts regarding the referendum:
A parallel debate took place away from the blogosphere, where dirty tactics were sometimes used.
A series of video advertisements were made that portrayed the amendments to the constitutions as some kind of deception. One or two of them compared it to not-so-valuable goods being sold to a client without him noticing. Another one, however, was criticized for the inappropriate use of women's sexuality in it. Fatma Emam wrote about that ad here:
Some of the Islamists who were in favor of a yes vote relied heavily on religion to persuade people. Some of the religious claims used weren't even accurate, but were just used for the sake of the debate. A printed advertisement [Ar] was published in the newspapers telling people that according to Islam they are obliged to vote with yes. On the other hand, some Christians were also reported to have used religion in persuading people. Hend Sallam wrote about the use of religion here.
Conversely, many Coptic Christians called for a ‘no’ vote because they want an entirely new constitution, feeling they are not equal citizens under the current constitution.
The Islamic Anti-Christianity Observatory categorized those who are with and those who are against the constitution amendments according to their point of view:
Till the day the referendum results were announced, it was hard to predict the exact percentage of those who were with or against it. On Twitter and Facebook the number of people on both sides were almost even. The profile pictures using red logos with “Vote No” on them, were even seen more than the green ones. Many prominent figures such as El Baradei, Amr Moussa, Wael Ghonim (the administrator of We Are All Khaled Said Facebook page), and many other writers and artists declared that they were going to refuse the amendments. Ursula Lindsey wrote here about the poll that took place on “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook page and its results:
The We Are All Khaled Said group has carried out an opinion poll, with 18,000 participants (I love that we have polls now, no matter how unscientific!) and the results are: 49% against; 36% for; 13% undecided; 2% won't vote.
After the invasion of #VoteYes and #VoteNo logos on users profile pictures and avatars, fingers dipped in pink ink replaced those logos after the referendum
Yet offline, and in the streets, it was clear that a majority of the voters were going to accept the amendments. Then came the referendum day, and later on the results came out as follows, showing a great victory to those who agreed on the amendments:
Here is the breakdown of the vote throughout the governorates of Egypt in the official referendum. Cairo and Alexandria had the highest voting turnout while South Sinai had the lowest turn out.
Such a huge difference between referendum results and the speculations built using the online scene made many people question the real effect of Internet and social media on the masses in the streets.
Sandmonkey wrote down his reasons behind such huge gap, and here is a quick summary of his blog:
Zeinobia on the other hand expressed her anger and disagreement with those who claim that  those who voted with the amendments were either being brainwashed by the Muslim-Brotherhood/Salafis or were against the revolution from the beginning:
Finally Lastodri wrote how voting in such a democratic atmosphere made her proud to be Egyptian.
And Zeinobia added that even after this referendum, the revolution is still not over yet:
This post is part of our special coverage for Egypt Protests 2011.