Dissent Quashed As Egypt Votes on Reform

Security forces and violent gangs cracked down on dissenters yesterday as Egyptians voted in a constitutional referendum that opposition parties have denounced as a sham.

A yes vote will allow more than one candidate to stand in presidential elections, but will also, in effect, give President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic party the power to select candidates.

Urging Egyptians to back the amendment, Mr Mubarak said that it would open new avenues of democracy and "secure the safety and the independence of the nation".

Egypt's main legal opposition parties called for a boycott of the referendum, saying they did not wish to be "props in a play which is not serious". The banned Muslim Brotherhood, hundreds of whose members have been arrested in recent weeks, supported the boycott.

The government had warned that opposition would not be tolerated and there was a heavy security presence in Cairo as the polls opened yesterday.

One demonstration was cancelled, but smaller groups of protesters who ventured on to the streets were set upon by security forces or pro-Mubarak gangs. In one incident, police withdrew to let a gang beat up more than a dozen supporters of the Kifaya ("Enough") movement, which is calling for an end to the president's 24-year rule.

Elsewhere, 150 government supporters attacked Kifaya members with sticks. Police looked on as Mubarak loyalists attacked a woman with batons and tore her clothes.

In another clash, an Associated Press reporter said security police had beaten, groped and verbally harassed women demonstrators.

On Monday, President George Bush's wife, Laura, declared her support for the constitutional change. During a visit to Egypt, she described it as "a very wise and bold step". Gamila Ismael, of the opposition al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, accused her of giving the Mubarak regime a green light for repression.