• EGYPT
  • December 24, 2013
  • 10 minutes read

Egypt Pro-Democracy Coalition Announces Referendum Boycott

Egypt Pro-Democracy Coalition Announces Referendum Boycott

 According to an official statement issued at an international news conference at the Wassat Party HQ, the Alliance affirmed it only recognizes the 2012 Constitution approved by the people, currently suspended by the junta:



The Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance endeavors to save Egypt from the grip of the murderous military coup, which squandered Egypt’s resources and trampled popular will expressed in five separate elections since March 19, 2011 until the country’s Constitution was adopted as approved by the Egyptian people in the December 2012 referendum, where it won the trust of the majority of Egyptians by about 64% of the total vote.


Since the coup, however, the putschists have been actively conducting vicious vindictive campaigns of demolition of the January Revolution and all the symbols and values ​​of liberty, dignity and social justice.


Evidently, the fascist junta are burning this homeland, tearing apart the social fabric of the country, as they seek to create a civil war in order to have exclusive authority over a new dictatorship that suppresses freedoms, incarcerates honest honorable citizens, shutters dozens of media outlets and independent TV channels, making state and private media a tool of repression and a means of sowing hatred and strife.


Since the first moments of the coup, the Alliance has been fighting, with all peaceful protest activities, to take Egypt back to the democratic path chosen by Egyptians of their own free will. The Alliance co-operates with all honorable and patriotic Egyptians and revolutionary movements that took part in the January Revolution, in order to stop this conspiracy as the putschists devoted the whole country’s resources to restore the Mubarak regime with all its tragic failures and repressive practices.


The Alliance – with all its member parties, groups and movements – announces it is to fully boycott this sham referendum conducted by the fascist murderous military coup’s authorities, and calls on all the Egyptian people to boycott the vote for political, legal and procedural reasons:


First – Political Reasons:


1 – These constitutional amendments are null and void, built on falsehood and issued by an illegitimate committee, appointed by illegitimate coup authorities.


2 – The coup’s so-called constitutional declaration and roadmap assume only a "Yes" vote on these illegitimate amendments, indicating a deliberate intention to falsify the results of the referendum. The junta’s roadmap has no alternative path for a ‘No’ vote.


3 – The authorities conducting this so-called referendum represent the former military council and the current General Command of the Armed Forces, which laid to waste five most credible democratic elections.


4 – The junta’s false constitution makes the armed forces a State above the State.


5 – The junta’s illegitimate document trampled all the cultural values and meanings of Egypt’s Arab-Islamic identity in which all the nation’s citizens, Muslims and Christians alike, partake. It omitted all articles on values ​​and ethics. It covered up corruption, and let the state abandon its role in achieving social justice.


Second – Legal Reasons:


The Alliance affirms that the 2012 Constitution is still valid and in force, which entails the following:


1 – The junta’s document has been prepared using procedures contrary to the 2012 Constitution ratified by a free and fair referendum. The legitimate document requires that amendments are made by the elected House of Representatives, not an appointed committee.


2 – The putschists’ document contradicts their constitutional decree on amendments to the 2012 Constitution, while we have now a new document with a new preamble and different article numbers.


3 – The junta’s document gives broad powers to their interim president to issue and directly enact new laws on ‘political rights’ and presidential and parliamentary elections, to determine the percentage of workers, farmers, women, youth, Christians and people with special needs (in parliament), and to determine the priority of upcoming elections (presidential or parliamentary), reinforcing authoritarian State tyranny.


Third – Procedural Reasons:


1 – The current political climate, where the society is torn apart and boils with incitement to hatred and strife, cannot be suitable for making any amendments to the Constitution, especially after Egypt witnessed coup authorities killing thousands of Egyptians, and injuring and arresting tens of thousands more, the same coup authorities that will take charge of the referendum.


2 – Coup authorities never announced any commitment to safeguards essential for the integrity of the referendum in terms of international and local monitoring, media impartiality, counting ballots in sub-committees, and holding the referendum in one day on constituency level.


3 – The neutrality of the armed forces and the police is not realized in the current circumstances as a result of their involvement in the murderous military coup, contrary to what happened in the referendum on the Constitution of 2012.


4 – The military coup authorities excluded a large number of judges, referring many of them for investigation on suspicion of refusing the military coup.


Hence, the Alliance affirms that fraud in the upcoming referendum will not lend legitimacy to coup authorities, because that which is built on falsehood is false. The Egyptian people’s peaceful struggle will continue until the coup is defeated, January 25 Revolution is restored to the democratic path and justice is served.


Long live the free will of the Egyptian people… Glory to the Revolution’s martyrs.


The Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance


Cairo: December 22, 2013