CAIRO, Egypt — Polarized Egyptians voted Saturday on whether to accept a controversial, Islamist-backed constitution that, while expected to pass, only hardened divisions between those who believe ratifying the document will bring stability and those who think it will further divide an already fragile nation.
Preliminary results released immediately after the polls closed showed that voters approved the constitution by 65 percent, according to parties supporting the constitution and monitors counting the vote.
The opposition claimed instead they had won with 65 percent, which members of the president’s alliance, the Muslim Brotherhood denied. But the ballots were not expected to be completely counted until today, at the earliest, and there is still a second day of voting next weekend.
The vote appeared to be as much a referendum on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, the party through which Morsi ascended to the presidency, as the constitution itself.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood heralded the new document as the pathway to stability. But the opposition groups — Christians, secularists, liberals and moderates — called it divisive and unrepresentative.
Where voters were once festive and exuberant to take part in past elections, on Saturday the crowds were weary, even those embracing the constitution. This was Egypt’s third election this year and with each vote, the country has only become more divided.
And since the constitutional assembly hastily passed the document earlier this month, nine Egyptians have died in protests, the deadliest political crisis since Morsi’s June election.
There were accusations throughout the day of judges swaying voters, vote rigging, supporters outside telling voters who to choose and voters already listed as having cast ballots when they had not.
There were fewer election monitors Saturday as international groups did not have enough time to send representatives, and opposition groups hurriedly looked for volunteers, creating a cloud of doubt over the process.
The main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, said it had received complaints of “tens of violations.”
Voters stood in long lines as many judges boycotted the process, leading to fewer polling stations. Some accused their opponents of impropriety. Others expressed little hope that the proposed constitution would be an enduring document.
Supporters called it flawed, but the starting point for a stable government. Many said they embraced it because it included provisions that allowed parliament to make changes.
Anwar Ahmed, 50, had several blue checks on her hand to remind her to mark the blue circle on the ballot for “yes,” even though she had not read it.
“I want the country to move on,” Ahmed said. “I don’t want to wait for another year. My son read the constitution and he says that it has a lot of good things.”
While this vote was arguably the most important Egyptians have faced, they also seemed the least educated about the choices. Many said they had not read the document. Some said they thought they were voting for the president again.
Others, meanwhile, asked the judge monitoring the process who they should vote for. Still others did not know what would happen if the referendum failed.
At polling stations, those who once stood at rival protests for the past two weeks were suddenly standing side by side in the same line. In the northern middle-class neighborhood of Shobra, 30-year-old friends and neighbors Instasar Abdel Fadel, 49, and Zainab Mohammed, 40, bickered on the way to the polling station and all the way back home.
Fadel supported the constitution; Mohammed did not.
