MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti) – Egypt's main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, said on Sunday it would appeal the results of the country’s referendum, citing “fraud and violations.”
“The referendum is not the end of the road. It is only one battle," said a member of the National Salvation Front, Abdel Ghaffer Shokr on Sunday after the referendum apparently approved the newly drafted Islamist-backed constitution.
The National Salvation Front has asked the electoral commission to investigate the alleged irregularities before the official results are announced. Islamist parties, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, have rejected the opposition’s allegations.
"We will continue the fight for the Egyptian people," Shokr was quoted by Al Arabiya as saying.
About 63 percent of Egyptians supported the country’s first post-revolutionary Constitution at the referendum’s two stages held on December 15 and 22, including the opinion of Egyptian citizens who cast their votes abroad while slightly over 36 percent voted against it.
The official results of the referendum are expected to be announced on Monday.
If the new Constitution is approved by the majority of voters, elections for a new parliament are to be held in a few months, ending the transitional period that has lasted since Hosni Mubarak’s almost thirty-year-long presidency was ended by the January 2011 uprising.
