CAIRO
By Islam Mosaad
Cairo's Tahrir Square will remain closed until January 25, which will mark the third anniversary of the popular uprising that unseated long-serving president Hosni Mubarak, a security source said Wednesday.
The square was closed off on Wednesday amid calls by pro-democracy groups to converge on the flashpoint protest venue on the second and final day of a constitutional referendum.
Riot police and military vehicles took up positions while soldiers lined the square's entrances on Wednesday evening.
A security source told Anadolu Agency that security forces had closed the square off to traffic as a precautionary measure in the final hours of the referendum.
Calls have circulated on social media websites by pro-democracy activists – who are boycotting the referendum, which they say is "illegitimate" – to stage marches on Tahrir Square on Wednesday evening to coincide with the end of the constitutional vote.
But the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy said it had dropped plans to protest in Tahrir "after security forces turned the square into a military barracks."
On Wednesday, security forces dispersed a rally staged by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi outside Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace.
Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the January 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak, has become a no-go area for Morsi supporters since the government declared it would no longer allow sit-ins after security forces violently dispersed two pro-Morsi protest camps last August.
The two-day constitutional vote, which began at 9am Tuesday, is being held amid tight security. The army has deployed some 160,000 soldiers and officers to secure the balloting, while the Interior Ministry has deployed around 220,000 policemen countrywide.
At least 11 people were killed on the first day of the vote on Tuesday.
The army-installed interim administration has aggressively campaigned for a massive turnout in hopes of highlighting broad public support for a transitional roadmap imposed by Egypt's army-backed government.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
