Egyptians adopt divisive charter

Egypt has adopted a new, Islamist-backed constitution with nearly two-thirds support in a referendum preceded by weeks of sometimes bloody protests, official media said yesterday.
However, the secular-leaning opposition, which has alleged fraud, said it will appeal the referendum result.
Polling "fraud and violations" skewed the results of the two-stage referendum, the final leg of which was held on Saturday, the National Salvation Front charged in a press conference in Cairo.
Germany immediately backed the call for a transparent investigation into the results. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "The new constitution can only meet with acceptance if the process of its adoption is beyond reproach."
Egyptian state media and President Mohamed Morsi's supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood said the constitution was passed with the support of nearly two-thirds of voters, based on unofficial tallies.
The state news agency MENA had reported the final results would be released on Monday.
Opposition to the charter have fuelled demonstrations for the past month, some of them violent, such as clashes that wounded 62 people in Egypt's second city of Alexandria on Friday, the day before the final round of voting.
Morsi and Islamists backing the charter say it is necessary to restore stability after the early 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
But the opposition accuses Morsi of steamrolling through the referendum without consensus on the charter, and argues that a low voter turnout of around 32 percent undermined the plebiscite's legitimacy.
Approval of the constitution would trigger parliamentary elections in two months' time to replace an Islamist-dominated assembly that was dissolved by Egypt's constitutional court before Morsi's election in June.