Egyptians headed to polling stations yesterday for a referendum on controversial constitutional changes which the regime says promotes democracy but which the opposition charges limit political freedoms.
The amendments, which were rushed through parliament a week ago, have drawn rare US criticism and prompted opposition calls for a boycott.
The regime says the changes fulfil President Hosni Mubarak's promise for democratic change and are crucial to the security of the country and the region.
Critics lambast them as a major setback for basic freedoms and a bid by the regime to put a lid on the Islamist opposition's growing popularity while ensuring a smooth transition of power from Mubarak to his son Gamal.
A total of 36 million Egyptians were registered to vote in the referendum, at the nation's almost 10,000 polling stations.
Turnout was expected to be low due to a boycott by a united opposition front and an abbreviated campaign by the government, which pushed the amendments through the ruling party-dominated parliament only a week ago.
"These changes are crucial for the future of the country," Mubarak said at a rally on Saturday.
"The constitutional amendments ... should prevent trading in religion and illegitimate political activity and safeguard the nation against the threat of terrorism," he said.
Mubarak dismissed US criticism of the proposed amendments after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced her reservations.
En route to Egypt for a meeting with Mubarak and Arab foreign ministers, Rice told reporters that Egypt had generated "certain expectations" for improving democracy "and the hope was that it would be a process that gave voice to all Egyptians."
"I think there's some danger that hope is not going to be met," she said in reference to the amendments.
Most of the 34 articles being amended remove references to socialism.
But the changes also allow the authorities to arrest terrorism suspects without warrant and refer them to military courts and reduce judicial oversight of elections.
One amendment bans political activity based on religion.
"My simple answer is this prohibition is already in our legislation for years and years and years," Gamal Mubarak said in an interview on Sunday.
"All that the president did is elevate that very important principle to the constitution," he said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which sees itself as the main target of the amended constitution has called for a boycott, arguing that the regime will tamper with the results anyway.
Secular opposition groups have joined the boycott call and staged several demonstrations across the country over the weekend.
Several arrests were made in central Cairo on Sunday as police sought to prevent a few dozen demonstrators from gathering.
The Muslim Brotherhood even suggested a boycott of the referendum was a religious obligation but the country's top religious authority hit back by arguing that participating in the vote was a "duty to God."
The imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, said "everyone should go to the polling stations and vote," his spokesman Sheikh Abdallah Megawer said.
"This boycott is negative," he said. "Boycotting leads nowhere."
The latest referendum to take place in Egypt was in May 2005 when Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment that paved the way for the country's first pluralist presidential election.
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