Summary The Brotherhood is boycotting the vote as an attempt to legitimize an illegal coup.
CAIRO (Web Desk) — Egyptians trundled to the polls on Tuesday for the third referendum in three years to approve a new constitution, this time to validate the military ouster of their first fairly elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The level of turnout will be the most closely watched measure of success for the plebiscite, widely viewed as the presidential campaign kickoff of Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the military leader who removed Mr. Morsi.
The Brotherhood, the Islamist group that dominated Egypt’s free elections and now constitutes the main opposition, is boycotting the vote as an attempt to legitimize an illegal coup.
The government has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, jailed its leaders, seized its assets and criminalized membership. It has shut down all sympathetic Egyptian media outlets and arrested activists for even trying to hang signs or place stickers opposing the new charter.
