A referendum asking Egyptians to approve the country’s new constitution has passed overwhelmingly, with Reuters reporting late on Wednesday that official figures had roughly ninety percent of voters pulling the lever in favor.

“The approval of the constitution is perhaps more than 95 percent,” Major General Abdel Fattah Othman, director of public relations for the Interior Ministry, told private satellite channel Al-Hayat. The referendum is a key step in the political transition plan the interim government has billed as a path to democracy, even as it presses a fierce crackdown on the Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized party until last year.

Though exact figures regarding the turnout and the integrity of the balloting were disputed, the vote was widely seen as Egypt’s latest step along a path that seeks to eventually have the country returned to democratic governance. In July 2013 the Egyptian military responded to massive anti-government protests by removing from power the Muslim Brotherhood linked government of then-president Mohammed Morsi, and a subsequent army-backed interim government has been ruling since. Morsi’s Brotherhood-linked government had during its one-year tenure secured the drafting and passage of a controversial constitution that was criticized both domestically and internationally for prioritizing Islamic law at the expense of protections for women, religious minorities, and others. English-language Egyptian media outlet Al Arabiya pointedly quoted a Coptic Christian contrasting Brotherhood rule.

Wafaa Louis Tawadros, a Coptic Christian, said: “The (Muslim) Brotherhood wanted to divide us.” “So, I approve this constitution because it clearly states that Christians and Muslims are equal, and so are men and women,” she said. Egypt’s Christian community has been particularly targeted by Islamists for supporting the ouster of Mursi. They have faced dozens of attacks since July, with many Christian properties and churches torched by Islamist mobs.

The Brotherhood officially boycotted this week’s referendum and outbreaks of violence – including what appeared to be the  systematic intimidation of Christians – undermined turnout.

[Photo: Reuters / YouTube]