CAIRO
Egyptian voters lined up outside polling stations nationwide on Tuesday to vote on proposed amendments to the country's suspended 2012 constitution.
"I thought polling would start at 8am; that's why I came early, to avoid the crowd," one voter in his 50s told Anadolu Agency outside the Marg polling station in northeastern Cairo.
Some voters carried posters of Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the man widely seen as the architect of elected president Mohamed Morsi's ouster by the army this summer. Others waved Egyptian flags.
Pro-army songs, played out of local shops, filled the air around polling centers.
In many areas of the capital, female voters stood in long lines to cast their ballots.
Many carried posters of the country's top general, while others carried placards reading "Yes to the Constitution."
"I came here to say 'yes' to al-Sisi, 'yes' to security, 'yes' to the constitution, and 'yes' to Egypt's army and police," one voter who identified herself only as Fatma told AA as she played a pro-army song on her mobile phone.
Fatma wasn't the only one to associate a vote for the draft charter with support for al-Sisi.
"If I had 100 votes, I would give them all to al-Sisi," one voter said as he waited on line outside a polling station in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya.
Around 53 million Egyptians are eligible to cast ballots at some 30,600 polling centers nationwide.
The constitutional vote – Egypt's first poll since Morsi's July 3 ouster – is being held amid massive security.
The army has deployed some 160,000 soldiers and officers to secure the balloting, while the Interior Ministry has deployed around 220,000 policemen.
The two-day referendum is being monitored by 68 local and international organizations, according to Egypt's High Electoral Commission.
Constitutional amendment is the first step of an army-imposed transitional roadmap that also calls for presidential and parliamentary elections sometime this year.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
