• 14:57
  • Thursday ,16 January 2014
العربية

Mubarak needs to go to polling station if he wants to vote: Official

By-Ahram

Home News

00:01

Thursday ,16 January 2014

Mubarak needs to go to polling station if he wants to vote: Official

A source from the Supreme Electoral Committee said that if anyone wants to participate in the constitutional referendum they have to cast the vote in designated polling stations.

The statement was responding to a request by former president Hosni Mubarak to vote at the military hospital where he is held, the Ahram Arabic news website reported.
 
"Whoever wants to vote on the referendum have to go to his designated electoral committee," said the source quoted by Ahram.
 
Hosni Mubarak had yet to vote in the referendum, according to his lawyer, Farid El-Deeb.
 
The former president has twice requested permission to vote at the military hospital in Maadi where he is based, because he is too sick to vote at a polling station, El-Deeb told Al-Ahram Arabic.
 
The source added that if current prisoners wish to vote in the referendum, he must get approval from officials and go to his designated polling station just like any other citizens to vote and then return to his cell.
 
The source also said that Mubarak is currently not arrested, but he is just a regular person who has the right to go to the vote, and that there is no legal barriers that would stop him from voting.
 
The source explained that all these procedures fall under the responsibilities of the Department of Prisons in the Ministry of the Interior.
 
Meanwhile, Mubarak's lawyer El-Deeb told MENA on Wednesday that until now they have not received any response from the Supreme Electrol Committee on two previous requests.
 
Ousted president Mubarak is calling on Egyptians to approve the new constitution, his lawyer said late on Tuesday, 14 January. "This is the president's wish, in order to achieve our hope of building a new state," El-Deeb told the privately-owned Al-Mehwer TV channel.
 
The 85-year-old is on trial for his responsibility in the killing of protesters during the January 2011 uprising that unseated him. He also faces charges of squandering public funds by selling natural gas to Israel at below market prices.
 
He was released from jail in August after a two year maximum detention provision lapsed.
 
Tuesday was the first day of the constitutional referendum. Voting resumed on Wednesday.
 
At least nine people were killed on Tuesday in clashes between Muslim Brotherhood members, local residents and security forces.
 
The constitution is the first electoral test in the roadmap put in place by transitional authorities that replaced Mohamed Morsi after his ouster in July 2013.