A new Egypt

The weekend referendum on changes to the Egyptian constitution passed overwhelmingly. The New York Times has an interesting breakdown of the voting coalitions for and against the amendments - there are some things that might surprise you. For one thing the groups most strongly in favor of the reforms are the military, the Muslim Brotherhood and the remains of Mubarak's NDP.
 On the other hand many of the original activists, including Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, and the Coptic community are strongly opposed, arguing the process is too rushed and it will usher in authoritarian, possibly Islamist, rule. Hani Shukrallah, an activist in one of the new liberal parties, notes that there is a large urban-rural divide:

“I saw one sign that said, ‘If you vote no you are a follower of America and Baradei, and if you vote yes you are a follower of God,’ ” he said. “The idea is that Muslims will vote yes and Copts and atheists will vote no.” [...]
The results called into question how much the expected front-runners were really in tune with Egyptian voters.
Most “no” votes emerged from Cairo and Alexandria, Mr. Shukrallah noted, whereas support flowed in heavily from the provinces.
“The revolution was a revolution of the big cities,” he said. “The provinces are just not there. The secular values that drove the revolution have not reached them.”