Egyptians always vote for any constitution - expert

In a two-day referendum in Egypt, more than 95 percent of the population supported the new constitution. An expert at the Institute of Strategic Studies and Analysis, Sergey Demidenko, believes that this is nothing surprising about it.

"The fact that the majority of Egyptians support the Constitution is not suspicious at all. The people of Egypt support all constitutions and vote "for" by an overwhelming majority in all referendums. An example of this is the fact that not so long ago, the people of Egypt voted for the constitution of Morsi, in a similar fashion.

"Not much time has passed. Political preferences of the majority of the people are changing very rapidly, with kaleidoscopic speed. Not that long ago, Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood won the elections and their constitution was approved. Today, in fact, the people have approved the Constitution of the military.

"The socio-economic situation in Egypt is extremely unstable. People try to understand what party, or political movement is largely a mouthpiece of their  aspirations. Who will improve the living standard in the country? Who will give them food? This is an impoverished country: 80 million people are packed on a small piece of land. Yet, against the backdrop of the current socio-economic model, no one can do that.

"Morsi could not do it, because, if we look at the program of Freedom and Justice, we will see that it is nothing but empty words. They were not ready to come to power, but when they did, they continued, roughly speaking, just talking. Therefore, political preferences of the population traditionally swung towards the military, who have long been considered a guarantor of stability in the country.

"When the military overthrew Morsi, who had compromised himself in the eyes of the people, the people supported the military. Morsi could not feed anyone in his country. Now the people are looking towards the military, trying to understand what they will and can do. Will they be able to offer any real political course? Will they be able to offer real economic reforms that will improve the situation? No one can give an answer to these questions. Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi enjoys great popularity now - his posters are plastered all over Cairo. The Egyptians are ready to endorse any of his initiative.

"We will see what will happen next year, because the military, in my opinion, are not set to change anything in Egypt. They are absolutely fine with the current  situation. They control the budget and have it all. The new constitution gives exclusive rights to the military, as, incidentally, the previous constitution did to  Morsi. Why would they wish to change anything then? They do not want to change anything. They want to preserve everything as it is, take action to stabilize the situation, but never improve it.

"To crown it all, they have the support of the United States, because Al- Sisi is known for his good contacts with the Americans. And now he is on good terms with the Saudis. The U.S. is also set to stabilize the situation. Like I said, under the current socio-economic model, it will not be possible to feed the people of Egypt, so we will wait for new Tahrir, new riots, but not immediately. The country will be quiet for at least a year, and then we will see what happens."

Pravda.Ru