Egypt to hold constitutional referendum in January

Egypt's interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi said on Monday the referendum on the country's new constitution will be held in January, state-run Al-Ahram reported.

 Beblawi said at an economic conference that the constitutional referendum will be held in the second half of January 2014, but did not give an exact date.


 According to the roadmap backed by the armed forces and the constitution declaration announced by the interim President Adly Mansour in July, the constitutional referendum was scheduled for mid-December. However, Beblawi did not clarify why the referendum was now delayed.


 Judge Hisham Mokhtar, the official spokesperson for the High Elections Committee, said on Monday that the referendum on the constitution will last for two days, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, Ahram said.


 Mokhtar also said that 73 non-governmental organizations, 67 local and six international ones, had been approved to monitor the referendum, the report added.


 The 50-member committee appointed to amend the draft constitution announced Monday that the committee will begin voting on the final draft on Saturday, according to official news agency MENA.


 Egypt suspended its 2012 constitution in the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in early July. Since then, the army has put forward a transitional roadmap, which included amending the constitution. Mansour announced his constitution declaration for transitional period on July 8, which detailed the schedule of constitution's amendment process, the constitutional referendum, as well as parliament and presidential elections.