Egypt

Freedom and Justice Party: All Egyptians are Real Winner of Referendum

NAKW715NNPQT5KPDr. Essam El-Erian, Vice-Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said “Egypt now has a constitution to be proud of, purely Egyptian, written specially for free people who revolted against tyranny, injustice and corruption, in order to restore and preserve freedom, dignity and social justice.

In a blog post on his Facebook page, Erian said: “Every Egyptian must know and demand his or her constitutional rights. Peoples adopt Constitutions in order to apply them and operate their provisions”.

Separately, Hussein Ibrahim, FJP Secretary in Alexandria, said the Egyptian people resolutely rejected elitist guardianship and aborted the referendum boycott campaign, forcing its proponents to cancel their dubious plans.

“The whole Egyptian public is the winner of this democratic experience – the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ camps alike. For the first time in Egyptian history, we give ourselves a purely Egyptian constitution.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Mohamed Gamal Heshmat, member of the Shura Council (upper house of Egypt’s parliament) and member of the FJP National Committee, highlighted the need for national reconciliation among political forces in addition to openness about who is conspiring against the Egyptian people. He further called all political forces to put aside differences and work to uphold the higher interests of the nation.

For his part, Dr. Mohamed Beltagy, FJP Secretary in Cairo, pointed that the constitution is a human effort, and hence is not without errors; but that it does represent distinct progress worth building upon.

“I hope opponents will now read the Constitution. I hope we all seek to implement what is good for the people of this homeland. Certainly, we will amend whatever future days will prove needs amendment.

“We have to consider future duties, and not squander our time in the dialectics of the past. We must also address the economic and social conditions of our poor, as well as our security problems and local services.

“Let us build the institutions of the country by the new rules of civilized society as set by the new constitution.”

Earlier on Tuesday, justice Samir Abu El-Maati, Head of Cairo Court of Appeal who is also member of the Supreme Judicial Council and the President of the High Judicial Elections Commission (HJEC), announced the official results of the constitutional referendum, declaring that the number of eligible voters were 51,919,067 and the number of voters 17,058,317 – about 32.9% of total number of eligible voters, of which 16,755,012 were valid votes and 30,339 votes were void.

In conclusion, the head of the HJEC announced that 10,693,911 voters said “yes” to the Constitution – about 63.8%; while 6,061,101 voters said “no” to the constitution – about 36.2%.

Back to top button