Egypt’s top elections official resigns citing health reasons

The head of Egypt’s committee overseeing the constitution referendum resigned on Wednesday , only days before the second stage takes off.

Local media reports said that the resignation of Zaghloul el-Balshi, who is secretary general of the election committee, came after he underwent eye surgery.

Conflicting accounts emerged on Tuesday, with Hisham Raouf, assistant to the Minister of Justice, denying that El-Balshi has resigned from his position, reported state-run Al-Ahram.

El-Balshi had also previously threatened to boycott supervising the vote following deadly clashes between liberal and Islamist demonstrators earlier this month.

A local Egyptian newspaper quoted a source close to Al-Belshy claiming that the resignation came “due to the lack of provisions for judicial supervision for the second stage of the referendum.”

But Judge Mahmoud Abu Shousha, a member of the SEC “denied” these reports in a press conference on Tuesday evening, reported the Daily News Egypt.

The country's referendum came under fire after Islamist leaders dismissed criticisms of the draft and rushed it to a vote, and many judges and others have refused to be involved in supervising it.