Egypt opposition denies legality of first-stage referendum

by Shaimaa Behery CAIRO, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- "We want to re-run the voting process on the first stage of the constitution referendum because the violations and forgeries which were committed can't lead to real expressive results," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of Egyptian opposition National Salvation Front told Xinhua. The first stage of the referendum of Egypt's draft constitution ended Saturday night at 11:00 p.m. local time (2100 GMT). Due to the high turnout, the closing time of the referendum was extended from 7:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) to 11:00 p.m. (2100 GMT). The historic referendum was planned to run in two stages, according to a republican decree issued by President Mohamed...