Egyptians voted peacefully and in large numbers on Saturday in a referendum on an Islamist-backed draft constitution, hoping that the results would end three weeks of violence, division and distrust between the Islamists and their opponents over the ground rules of Egypt's promised democracy.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist group aligned with President Mohamed Morsi, predicted a big win for ratification. In the districts that voted Saturday, including the opposition strongholds of Cairo and Alexandria, about 57 percent approved the new constitution, according to an unofficial count by the Brotherhood on Sunday morning.
Half of the country will vote next Saturday, but in predominantly rural areas that are expected to heavily favor the charter. The Brotherhood's count, while not official, was based on tallies posted at each voting station.
A spokesman for the main coalition opposing the charter said that it had found widespread irregularities and that its leaders would speak later on Sunday. In Cairo, the biggest city, about 52 percent voted no, according to the preliminary results.
Regardless of the results, the unexpectedly heavy turnout and orderly balloting was yet another turning point for Egypt's nearly two-year-old revolution. After three weeks of violence and threats of a boycott, voters appeared for the moment to pull back from the brink of civil discord and reaffirm their trust in the ballot box, spending hours in long lines to vote in the sixth national election since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago.
It remained to be seen if the losing side would accept the results, or how long the peace might last. Many who voted yes said they were doing so to end the chaos of the transition rather than to endorse the text of the charter. But the crowded polling places suggested a turn toward stability, if not necessarily the liberal outcome some revolutionaries had hoped for. Despite opposition warnings of chaos, the streets of the capital were free of major protests for the first time in weeks.
And if the constitution is approved by the margins his supporters predict, the smooth vote could fortify Mr. Morsi's power and legitimacy.
Military officers guarded polling places, and there were few reports of violence. Egyptian state media reported nine injuries in clashes around the Nile Delta town of Dakahleya, and that unknown assailants threw Molotov cocktails near the headquarters of a liberal party that had been part of the opposition under Mr. Mubarak.
As they waited in line to vote, neighbors continued to spar over the contentious process that produced the charter. Some said that it had been unfairly steamrolled by Egypt's new Islamist leaders over the objections of other parties and the Coptic Christian Church, and that as a result the new charter failed to protect fundamental rights.
Others blamed the Islamists' opponents for refusing to negotiate, in an effort to undermine democracy because they could not win at the ballot box. Many expressed discontent with political leaders on both sides.
"Neither group can accept its opposition," said Ahmed Ibrahim, 40, a government clerk waiting to vote in a middle-class neighborhood in the Nasr City area of Cairo. Whatever the outcome, he said, "one group in their hearts will feel wronged, and the other group will gloat over their victory, and so the wounds will remain."
The referendum once promised to be a day when Egyptians realized the visions of democracy, pluralism and national unity that defined the 18-day revolt against Mr. Mubarak. But then came nearly two years of chaotic political transition in which Islamists, liberals, leftists, the military and the courts all jockeyed for power over an ever-shifting timetable.
The document that Egyptians voted on was a rushed revision of the old Mubarak charter, pushed through an Islamist-dominated assembly in an all-night session, after Christian and secular representatives quit in protest. Many international experts faulted the charter as a missed opportunity, stuffed with broad statements about Egyptian identity but riddled with loopholes regarding the protection of rights.
Worse still, for many, was the polarizing endgame the charter provoked. Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood said more than 35 of its offices, including its Cairo headquarters, had been attacked and vandalized over the last three weeks. A night of street fighting between his Islamist supporters and their opponents killed at least 10 people.
Many voters waiting in line on Saturday said they rejected the exploitation of religion by both sides: the Islamists who sought to frame the debate as an argument over Islamic law, and opponents who accused Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies of laying the groundwork for a theocracy.
"It is not about these emotional issues," said Talan Hassaballah, a businessman who was voting in the Nasr City neighborhood. "I am going to vote no, but not because I disagree with the Muslim Brotherhood or the president."
Like most who said they would vote no, he faulted its provisions on "social justice," like guarantees of human rights, workers' rights and social services. "They are vague," he said.
Tensions with Egypt's Christians, believed to make up about 10 percent of the population, were rubbed raw by the debate. Ultraconservative Islamist satellite networks often faulted angry Christians for provoking violence, and many Christians were shocked that the Islamist leaders of the constitutional assembly had pushed the draft through even after representatives of the Coptic Church had withdrawn.
"The entire Christian community was offended," Nagwa Albert, 56, said after she voted against the constitution. Speaking of the Islamist leaders' statements to rally support for the draft, she said: "It feels like the beginning of a war."
In the Cairo neighborhood of Shubra, Muslim and Christian voters took turns contradicting each other. Sarwat Mikhail, a 53-year-old Christian, blamed Mr. Morsi for recklessly rushing to ratify the constitution. "We still have not found someone who respects us, and fears for his people," he said.
Nadra Mandoor, a 49-year-old Muslim lawyer next to him, insisted that her Christian neighbors misconstrued the constitution. Opposition leaders "do not want the country to move forward," she said. "Should we allow the dictatorship of the minority?"
Several Muslims voting no said they were offended by imams who had urged them at Friday Prayer to vote yes in the name of religion. In Alexandria, one such appeal by an ultraconservative sheik set off a street fight that injured more than a dozen people.
One Muslim who complained about pressure in his Cairo mosque, Ehab Abdel Hafeez, a 35-year-old salesman, said he had voted for Islamists in last year's parliamentary elections but intended to vote no on the constitution, in part because he saw the president's Islamist supporters battling their opponents in the streets last week.
"What I saw there was savagery," he said. "They were like monsters with the dragging and the beating. The Islamists have cut Islam to their own measurements, and it is not the Islam we know, a religion of mercy. Now we look like terrorists to the world."
The voting will be held in two phases, with the second next weekend, but the voting on Saturday was expected to be more decisive, because it included Cairo and Alexandria. The voting next Saturday in rural areas is expected to heavily favor the constitution.
Talaat Mohamed, 48, said he trusted Mr. Morsi not to abuse his powers as his authoritarian predecessors had, in part because he was a believer. "If President Morsi did not fear God, he would be like Sadat and jail all who oppose him," Mr. Mohamed said, referring to former President Anwar el-Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981.
Others opposed to the constitution vowed to continue their protests even if it passed. "The constitution will remain a problem, because the foundation of the house is going to be flawed," said Rami Yusef, 23, an engineering student waiting to vote in Nasr City. "The protests will go on."
But Mr. Hassaballah, the Nasr City businessman, was less worried. Asked if the outcome would be accepted, he asked, "You mean by people like us, or the political people?"
"I am 45 years old," he said, and the post-Mubarak transition "is the first time I have voted."
"I think the referendum is beautiful."
