Voting Girl 2012 : Constitution Referendum !!

Back to the minority , oh yes back to the minority and the spirit of the girl that that said No to Mubarak and his constitutional amendments as well his NDP candidates. Today I voted in the constitution referendum , I voted an I said No to the draft constitution.
I voted against what Yasser El Borhamy , the famous Salafist preacher described as the  constitution most restrictive to the rights and freedoms in the history of modern Egypt.I voted No today and in fact I was not alone many voters I have met in the different polling stations in Giza. My tour was in Giza , I did not stay at the desk and I think it was another good experience.

First my tour started before heading to my polling station , I head to El Qawmia language school which if you follow my Voting girl series since I became an eligible voter in times of ex-President Mubarak , you will know that this is my favorite polling station in Agouza. It is big , mixed and includes a cross section of Egyptian society. Of course this time I noticed the majority of the voters were from the Middle Class and Upper Middle class.

I noticed also two bearded men who seemed to be Salafists “From the style of the beard” wearing the IDs of the National council of Human rights “Following the State and is headed by Judge Hossam El Gheriany , the head of the Constituent assembly”. It is not the first time I see bearded men “Mostly Islamists” as observers in the referendum. Of course there were other observers from other initiatives.
According to the judges in the polling station’s sub committees , the turnout was high.

I spoke with a lady who came with her daughter , she told me that she voted No because she does not approve. She also added that she knows “yes” will win but not fairly ; a common thing I have heard through my tour.

Here is the historical shot

It is worth to mention also that I met the reporters of Freedom and Justice Newspaper “Following MB and FJP” who got the new Press permits issued by the Referendum Committee. Ironically the journalists syndicate told us that there are no new permits and we will have to work with our news ID cards and old Presidential elections permits.
Then I headed to my polling station “El Orman girls” school polling station. The All women’s polling station. It had a very low turnout compared to the Constitution referendum in 2011 and Presidential elections. Of course the highest turnout I have seen there was in the constitution Referendum 2011.It was low. I met a lady ,very classy Upper Class lady who got an observer permit.She told me that she did not hear any violations in the Middle or the Upper Middle class areas but rather in Popular areas like Imbaba. She wanted to go there but needed some protection there !!
I finished my civic duty to meet dear friends from the neighborhood who also voted No and in the way out we met with that old lady , real angry old lady who voted No.

I voted No and I know they will change the results , you know after 3 days bread’s price will rise. I did not vote for myself but for the poor young generations

We walked with her in the street while she was expressing her Anti-MB views when some lady from those voted Yes who tried to convince her with sweet talk about the need of stability but the old lady told her a big NOOOOOOO. Soon enough the whole tiny street was with the old lady and you began to hear there is no difference between MB and Mubarak , in fact Mubarak was better !! “A thing that I would hear a lot tonight”  Another thing I have heard tonight was that “The USA is ok with the MB because Israel wants Sinai back”
I left my friends and the angry old lady and headed to Mit Okaba school polling station in Wadi El Nil street in Giza. It is a working class women’s polling station with a minority of middle class. It had a higher turn out than my polling station. I met two girls from Middle class who told me that they voted NO because they do not approve the articles of the constitution.They believed that the results will be Yes because majority of the people are deceived by Sharia talk “Both were veiled”. I met another lady from the working class who voted No because she does not approve it and that it. On the side I met another old lady from the working class who voted yes because her son read it and believed it was good plus Egypt needs stability. In my way I met two working class ladies who voted Yes and did not want to speak politics because they are not involved in politics.
Leaving this polling station , I headed to Gamal Abdel Nasser polling station. This is all stars polling stations in Dokki , you got famous actors and politicians go there. Of course I reached there too late. I went first to the Men’s committee. The turnout was not that big but men from different ages mainly from Middle class. Most of those I talked with voted No. One of them , a tourism company owner told me that the constituent assembly does not represent “us”

Moving to the women’s polling station’s committee ,well it was actually mixed but the majority was for women. There was a higher turnout. Again we are speaking about the Middle Class. Most of the ladies I spoke with said that they voted for No. One of them told that she voted No because she can not stand MB anymore.
I witnessed an incident there which was quite interesting. A veiled young lady was stopped by two Niqabi ladies in the way to the polling station , they spoke for a while then they left her. The young lady was then stopped by an elderly relative and her daughter who are both veiled. After kisses and hellos the old lady asked the young lady

what are you going to vote for !??

and the young lady told her

No

and the old lady told her

Thank God , I voted No too , I was worried after seeing those Niqabi ladies speaking to you

and the young lady replied.

Oh no these ladies work in the beauty salon I go to

I swear that scene was in front of my eyes.
There were tons of TV live broadcast cameras there transferring from there as it is one of the major polling stations in Dokkia in Giza.
Now moving to another polling station. I headed to the Agricultural museum polling station , it was empty so I head to the Faculty of Kindergarten polling station in Tahrir street it was my last stop. It is men’s polling station , another cross section of the society.

There I found the judge taking a break for about 15 minutes to pray, during that time a men’s queue was formed and soon the Yes and No debates began. I spoke with two men , one from the working class and one from Upper middle class. One is a worker in a factory and the other is a top researcher in some ministry. The worker told me that he is fed up by the MB and the researcher told me that this constitution will enable the MB to control everything in the country.
Here are photos I took today from the different polling stations

I will upload the video clips tomorrow insh Allah.
To be honest I do not know if there will be any Voting girl future edition with amount of violations I heard today in other governorates.