Voting along sectarian and class lines, and also country mouse vs. city mouse; very disappointing for the secular liberal youth movement; a yearning for stability in order to get back to business, tourism, etc.:

Egyptian Voters Approve Constitutional Changes
By Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, March 20, 2011

CAIRO — Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum on constitutional changes on Sunday that will usher in rapid elections, with the results underscoring the strength of established political organizations, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, and the weakness of emerging liberal groups.

More than 14.1 million voters, or 77.2 percent, approved the constitutional amendments; 4 million, or 22.8 percent, voted against them....

“It is very, very disappointing,” said Hani Shukrallah, who is active in a new liberal political party and is the editor of Ahram Online, a news Web site.

He and many other opponents of the referendum said religious organizations had spread false rumors, suggesting that voting against the referendum would threaten Article 2 of the Constitution, which cites Islamic law as the main basis for Egyptian law.

“I saw one sign that said, ‘If you vote no you are a follower of America and Baradei, and if you vote yes you are a follower of God,’ ” he said. “The idea is that Muslims will vote yes and Copts and atheists will vote no.” ....

The results called into question how much the expected front-runners were really in tune with Egyptian voters.

Most “no” votes emerged from Cairo and Alexandria, Mr. Shukrallah noted, whereas support flowed in heavily from the provinces.

“The revolution was a revolution of the big cities,” he said. “The provinces are just not there. The secular values that drove the revolution have not reached them.”

Essam el-Erian, the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, hailed the results, saying that most Egyptians wanted to move forward toward rapid change, though he noted that the 23 percent opposed should not go unnoticed.....

Egyptian voters say ‘yes’ to speedy elections
By Richard Leiby, Washington Post,  March 20, 6:34 PM

CAIRO —.....the referendum exposed some sectarian and class fault lines in the Arab world’s most populous nation. The well-organized Muslim Brotherhood urged a “yes” vote, whereas the Christian Coptic community opposed the amendments. So did many secular political leaders and organizers of the student movement that gathered forces to oust Mubarak, who resigned Feb. 11......

Other “no” voters in well-off areas raised alarms that approving the changes would tilt Egypt toward Islamist fundamentalism and pointed to the Muslim Brotherhood’s strong following among the poor and less educated. But a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Essam el-Erian, scoffed at the suggestion that the vote was sectarian.

“Voting was based on patriotic common ground,” he said. “Voting was based on political ideologies rather than religious ones...We are looking to the future, looking for a complete civilian state.”

But Ahmad Maher, a coordinator of one of the revolutionary youth groups, insisted that the voting broke down along sectarian lines. “In the coming period, we will try to spread political awareness among people and combat this shameful tendency of using religion for political goals,” he said.

To Kristen Stilt, an Arabic-speaking law professor from Northwestern University who talked to many voters Saturday as part of her research on Egyptian constitutional law, the landslide “yes” signaled the public’s yearning for stability.

“Despite the revolution, most Egyptians still cling to the structures of the past — a government, a president — and say that these are the structures we must have now,” she said. “People say, ‘When will the economy get better, when will the tourists come back? When we have a government in place.’ ”

That reflected the hopes of “yes” voter Mostafa Hassan, a Cairo dry cleaner. “Egypt is a free country now,” he said. “Of course, I am very happy. It will be good for business.”....

Fears of a 'counter-revolution' in Egypt
By Mark Levine, Al Jazeera, 20 Mar 2011 14:17

Activist says he is one of many beaten and tortured by police one month after Mubarak's ousting.

As Egypt prepared to vote on a constitutional referendum on Saturday, I caught up with two activists who were at the centre of the revolution for much of the time protests gripped Meidan Tahrir in Cairo...

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201132071452793639....