Voters given food boxes to back constitutional changes that could extend Sisi rule to 2030

Supporters of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have claimed victory after almost 90% of Egyptian voters backed sweeping constitutional changes that could result in him ruling until 2030.

Election officials claimed 88.8% of voters had confirmed the changes, with a turnout of 44%. The results overhaul the 2014 constitution: they extend presidential term limits to six years, allowing Sisi to run for re-election in 2024; expand presidential control over the judiciary, and enshrine the military’s role in politics.

While officials from the national election commission (NEC) praised the democratic nature of the vote, the referendum was marred by a carrot-and-stick campaign to drive working-class voters heavily affected by austerity measures to the ballot box.

Egyptian politicians triggered the referendum when 531 out of 596 lawmakers voted in favour of the changes last week.

Sisi renewed his mandate last year with 97.8% of the vote, amid reports of vote-buying in poor neighbourhoods. Outside the polls at the weekend, voters talked of being bussed in from working-class neighbourhoods and bribed with E£150 (£6.70) packs of food to vote.

Photos of food boxes distributed to people who could prove they had voted spread across social media, including some branded with the logo of the pro-government Future of the Nation party.

“I didn’t vote yes to get a bag [of food], but the bag encouraged me to go to the polls,” said one voter in the Shubra district, whose name has been withheld for her safety. She recounted an intricate system whereby a local trader took a photo of her ID card and number for receiving government subsidies 10 days before the vote. She presented this to receive a pink slip outside the polling station, the slip was then stamped by staff inside after she voted, and it was exchanged with a vendor for a bag of basic foodstuffs, such as cooking oil and pasta.

“People are poor and we need anything that can support us,” she said. “A lot of people I know went to the polls in order to get a bag of food, because Ramadan is around the corner and prices are very high these days.”

There was little to no public evidence of a campaign against the planned changes, and many voters said they were unaware one existed. As voters went to the polls under a canopy of banners encouraging them to vote yes, a young engineer named Ahmed Badawi was arrested for holding up a sign calling on citizens to vote no.

Polling stations were staffed by members of a campaign called Do the Right Thing who said they were there to help voters. The campaign also released videos and covered the streets in banners urging participation long before parliament voted to trigger the referendum.

Zeinab Mohammed Reda, a member of Do the Right Thing outside a polling station in the central Cairo neighbourhood of Mounira on Monday, said she was an assistant director at the government-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), but that she was staffing the polling station in a volunteer capacity. “These amendments aren’t just for Sisi, but for any president,” she said.

Most Do the Right Thing staff were young and paid 100LE (£4.50) a day, according to one young campaigner, whose name has been withheld for his safety. “Nobody would volunteer to stand on their feet for 12 hours,” he said.

The Guardian has viewed videos covertly filmed by the campaign member, showing plainclothes security officials and campaigners stationed outside one of the largest polling stations in Cairo physically forcing citizens inside.

He said some voters asked him whether their ballots would be truly anonymous, fearing that after presenting their ID cards at the polling station, staff would know if they had voted against the changes.

“They don’t tell them how to vote. They don’t need to tell them how to vote,” he said. “Anyone forced to do anything that is not legal is an insult. What is happening is insulting to the people.”

Mahmoud El-Sherif, of the NEC, dismissed questions about whether distributing food to voters was a violation of the democratic process.

“Any violation will be dealt with by the NEC and will be referred to the prosecution,” he told a press conference.

Officials from the NEC did not respond to the Guardian when contacted to ask about other violations, such as physical efforts to force people to vote.

Timothy Kaldas, of the Washington-based thinktank the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said: “The context in which this referendum took place was rigged from the outset. Virtually all local media outlets offered one-sided positive descriptions of the proposed amendments.”