



Morsi’s opponents say minority concerns have been ignored and the charter is full of obscurely worded clauses that could allow Islamists to restrict civil liberties, ignore women’s rights and undermine labor unions. They charge the constitution will enslave Egyptians.



‘‘History will remember that this regime forced a referendum on the people of Egypt in these harsh circumstances,’’ said Ahmed Said, leader of the liberal Free Egyptians Party. ‘‘They can’t find judges to monitor, (there is a) rift among Egyptians and blood on the streets.’’

Islamist members of the panel that drafted the constitution held a last-minute conference to defend it, accusing their rivals of spreading ‘‘lies’’ and causing strife.

‘‘This is political blackmail,’’ said Amr Darrag, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, as well as of the panel that drafted the constitution.


TV stations ran rival ad campaigns — one supporting a ‘‘yes’’ vote for the sake of stability, another advocating a ‘‘no’’ vote to avoid a constitution that would divide Egypt.

‘‘We ask people to make up their minds and decide ... and go vote,’’ Darrag told state TV.


‘‘This is a document that enslaves the Egyptian people, a document of repression,’’ Nassar, a constitutional law expert, told a news conference.

Thousands of Islamists filled a square in eastern Cairo, raising pictures of Morsi. A few kilometers (miles) away, the opposition chanted for a ‘‘no’’ vote in a sit-in outside the presidential palace. Liberal groups sent vehicles mounted with loudspeakers urging voters to cross ‘‘no’’ in their ballots.


In Alexandria, witness Mustafa Saqa said Sheik Ahmed el-Mahalawi, a well-known cleric in the ultraconservative Islamic sect known as Salafis, urged worshippers to vote ‘‘yes’’ and described the opposition as ‘‘followers of infidels.’’ His comments sparked arguments that quickly turned into fist fights and spread into the streets and residential areas around the mosque.
