Egyptians to vote on May 25

2005-05-12 12:22

Cairo - Egyptians will vote in a May 25 referendum on a constitutional amendment allowing more than one candidate to stand in presidential elections for the first time, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The semi-official Al-Gomhuria said it had "learned that President Hosni Mubarak has issued a republican decree setting May 25 as the date for the referendum on the amendment to Article 76".

The revision of Article 76 was endorsed on Tuesday by an overwhelming majority of the 454-seat lower house dominated by Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

Al-Wafd party, the largest legal opposition political party in the country, said it would boycott the vote on the changes and urged Egyptians to stay at home on referendum day.

But the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, arguably Egypt's strongest opposition group, called on supporters to come out in force, but to vote against the amendment.

The Islamist group's second-in-command Mohammed Habid underscored that "in our view, there was no amendment".

"This process has returned the country to square one. It will lead to more despair as people will lose all hope in political reform," he said.

The opposition, both secular and Islamist, charges that the amendment sets such tight conditions for registration only the ruling party will be able to field a candidate, undermining the whole point of the reform.

- AFP