The new charter aims to replace the constitution passed under Islamist President Mohammed Morsi months before he was ousted by the army.
The military wants a strong Yes vote to endorse Mr Morsi's removal.
His Muslim Brotherhood, now designated a terrorist group, is boycotting the vote and there are fears of violence.
Shortly before voting began, an explosion took place near a court building in Cairo's Imbaba district, although no casualties were reported.
A security source also told Reuters news agency that one man had been killed during an anti-referendum protest against in Bani Suef, south of Cairo.
A huge security operation is being mounted for the two days of voting. The interior ministry says 200,000 police officers, 150 central security units and 200 combat groups are being deployed around polling stations on both days.
Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visited one polling station in north Cairo, telling guards there: "Work hard.
We need the referendum to be completely secured."The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says this has been a
distorted campaign, with endorsements for the new constitution flooding state-run and private TV and radio.
However, spotting any posters from the No campaign is a lot harder and people have been arrested for putting them up, our correspondent says.
Democratic or not, she says, the referendum is seen by many as more than a ballot on a new constitution - it is widely viewed as a verdict on the removal of Mr Morsi.
Television pictures showed long lines of voters at some Cairo polling stations.
One voter, Salah Mustafa, told the BBC: "Compared to the document that we had last year, which was a really horrible constitution, there's a lot of rights, there a lot of rights, there's a lot of concepts that we wanted to see from day one."
www.benlatestnews.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment