Former presidential candidate Khaled Ali on Sunday filed a lawsuit in an attempt to halt the announcement of the constitutional referendum’s results and hold a new vote on the constitution after the full contents of its draft are published in the state’s legal bulletin and on referendum ballots.
The first phase of the constitutional referendum was held Saturday in 10 governorates, with the second phase to take place next Saturday in 17 others.
Ali filed the lawsuit against the president of the republic and head of the High Judicial Elections Commission, which is overseeing the vote. The lawsuit says voting ballots did not include articles from the draft constitution. When Ali called the state publishing house to ask about the Egyptian Gazette, a bulletin in which new government laws are published, he said he learned that the draft had also not been published there. Instead, only the president’s call for Egyptians to vote on the referendum was printed.
Ali said he refused to cast his vote upon discovering at his polling station that the ballot did not include the constitutional articles.
The Constituent Assembly has released many versions of the draft constitution during its composition, Ali told Al-Masry Al-Youm. He said this could confuse voters as to which draft was officially submitted to President Mohamed Morsy before he called for the referendum.
Ali cited assembly members and FJP officials stating that distorted copies of the draft had been printed and distributed to the public by an unknown entity, which called on Egyptians to vote “no.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
