After the referendum, the question we should ask now is what’s next? I mean what is the next step we should follow? The result of the referendum was modest in my opinion. About 36% of the people that has the right to vote participated.
In my opinion, this percentage is not big, and not enough. At the same time, however, it is not bad, taking into consideration that the Islamic Current had decided to boycott the referendum not participate.
The percentage of participants in this referendum is almost the same percentage of participants in the 2012 constitution. This means that about two thirds of the people that have the right to vote decided not to participate in this referendum.
I think that the study centers, like the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, should analyze and study why two thirds of the nation decided not to participate? Does this fraction belong to the Islamic Current? Or are there other reasons behind this?
Without searching and analyzing why two thirds didn’t participate in the referendum, we will not be able to make progress in political participation in general. However, back to my main question, which is what’s next?
I believe that the parliamentary and presidential elections should be as soon as possible, but this is not the step that will make stability. The political powers shouldn’t be in a dispute again like the last elections. The political powers should be united this time, not just in the parliamentary elections, but also in the presidential one.
Without unifying the political powers, we will back to step number one again, which means that we will never make any step forward. This also means more suffering for the normal and poor citizens, and at this moment we might recognize why two thirds didn’t participate in the referendum. Did they simply lose their trust in the Egyptian elite?
