Egyptian political scientist Amr Hamzawy has encouraged all Egyptians to participate in Saturday’s referendum vote on proposed constitutional amendments. “I urge all Egyptians to vote in the referendum actively the first test for democracy after January 25th Revolution,” he said.
In his article, Hamzawy asked for a breathtaking period in the next few hours before the referendum in order to let citizens decide their vote on the amendments on their own. He urged all political parties that have explicitly expressed their position concerning the referendum to stop holding any public conferences or meetings affecting citizens’ opinions and viewpoints. Also thinkers and public figures who will participate Saturday in seminars or public lectures concerning the referendum may resort to offering substantive positions of yes and no, without giving any personal preference or bias to this or that. The goal is to provide our citizens an area of sufficient time (24 hours) in order to give ourselves enough space, and we see what our reasoning and conscience will dictate on us regarding tomorrow’s position, he said.
He also added, “I invite you all to participate actively to ensure that the referendum would have no abuses or breaches that diminish the credibility of its final outcome. We have to help the armed forces and security services with our participation as voters and observers and be tuned for the conduct of the referendum process in preventing the occurrence of any abuses, regardless of the perpetrators.”
It is expected today that Saturday’s referendum will be a reasonably high voter turnout, as for the first time voters anticipate enough guarantees of a credible voting process. Many argue that it is their duty to vote and that every vote counts. Where previous elections in Egypt often saw officials or candidates pay people to encourage them to vote and for specific groups, today the hope is that no one is getting paid for voting. Egyptians are honestly seeking what is more than that, their country’s freedom. And it turns out that voting is such a cheap price of democracy.