(Vatican Radio) Egyptian officials are saying that an overwhelming majority of Egyptians
who voted on the country's new constitution have backed the draft charter. Unofficial
results indicate that more than 90 percent of the voters have said ``yes'' to the
constitution, with most of the ballots counted.
The vote was held Tuesday and
Wednesday, and was being seen as a test of public opinion about the coup that removed
President Mohammad Morsi from power and saw Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood organization
officially outlawed by court order.
The spokesman for the Greek Melkite Catholic
Church in Egypt, Fr Rafic Greiche, told Vatican Radio that the referendum was the
first step in a political roadmap to new elections for a president and parliament.
“After the parliamentary elections, we will be able to say that Egypt has entered
into a democratic and stable era,” he said.
Fr Greiche went on to say that
Christians’ participation in the process has been, and he hopes will continue to be,
both broad and deep. “In the parliamentary elections to come,” he said, “Christians
are already in [several different political] parties, and will have to work with the
parties – and this is something new for Christians,” who, “have begun to work with
Muslims as one heart and one soul, in many different parties, and this is something
good, because Christians are now participating in political life.” Listen to our
extended conversation with Fr Rafic Greiche: